The Shining Beacon
by Taraman
Summary: Beacon Academy is an unusual combat school dedicated to fighting monsters. Students are paired, fighter and scientist, to investigate the world. What happened to the Grimm? And what happens when they come back? Featuring a faunus Ruby, dragon Yang, and more than a few monsters, demons, and other creatures from the less cuddly side of nature.
1. Chapter 1

Bonaventure.

There was a certain poetry to the name. It was both a greeting and a farewell. It was the start or the end of an adventure, or perhaps just a stop along the way. Blake wasn't sure which applied to her, but she was almost sad to see the gates of the train station fade behind her.

Life was sometimes more complex when you never stayed in the same place for longer than a year or two at a time. Hopefully that would change with her next destination. Still, this was the first time in a long, long while that she'd moved because she had planned to and not because she was forced to. The old city was calm but flavorful, friendly but secluded. She'd very much enjoyed her job as a librarian and the Kendo club she trained at. Well, five hours to the train change, and then another fifteen to her new home. She tilted her seat back as far as it would go, and closed her eyes.

She found her seat on the next train quickly, and pulled out a book, but was interrupted by a "Hello!"

She looked up. A very tall girl stood by the seats. She had gorgeous red hair, a true crimson color that put to shame the orange of most that called themselves 'red-head'. She wore a bronze tiara and matching earrings, with high boots and a scabbard concealed skillfully beneath her waistband, the very subtle bulges only giving it away by virtue of Blake's experience.

"I'm Pyrrha," she said, sitting down on the seat next to Blake.

"Blake," she replied, with a small smile.

"Where are you headed to?" Pyrrha asked.

"Vale. I'm studying at Beacon."

"What a coincidence! I am as well. You're a scientist?" Pyrrha asked, a slight furrow of her brow as her eyes darted for an instant to where Blake's own weapon, a katana with bladed sheath, was concealed behind her shoulder.

"Yes. You?"

"Fighter. Perhaps we could be partners," she replied with a smile of her own.

"Maybe. They've already assigned them based on applications though."

"You never know," Pyrrha said amiably.

Blake gave a non-committal shrug and opened her book again. Small talk was never her forte.

They walked from the Vale train station to Beacon together, removing the coverings from their weapons as soon as they were clear of the station. It was late at night already and Blake wasn't too keen on any undesired attention, such as two girls with large suitcases were likely to draw. The front desk clerk at the dormitory building informed them that they were not, in fact, partners, and sent them to their assigned rooms.

Blake knocked on the door rather than trying to finagle the key out of her pocket while carrying the entirety of her worldly possessions. It was opened by another Amazonian girl, this one a blonde.

"Hey! You must be Blake, right? I'm Yang, your partner! Come on in and we'll get your stuff sorted."

She had purple eyes. That really shouldn't have been a big deal to Blake, who's own were a rather unique amber, but she was caught off balance by the girl's scent.

It was no secret that all Faunus have enhanced sense of smell, and use that sense much more than humans do. Cat faunus have even better senses than most. Blake was used to immediately being able to pick out faunus, including type, among humans. But Yang smelled ... different. Her scent was ostensibly very attractive. Lavender mixed with pine with the barest hint of ... campfire smoke? But something about it froze Blake like a deer staring down a car. She wasn't sure if she wanted to run at the blond girl or run away, as fast as possible. She shook her head slightly, trying to clear her thoughts and relax her breathing.

"Yeah, that's me." She forced a smile.

Yang casually grabbed her heavy suitcase and walked into the room. Blake followed her.

"Shoes by the door, we keep the floor clean in here. There's two bedrooms, one on each side. My sister Ruby and her partner are going to be in the one on the left, we have the one on the right. Kitchenette there, although most of our food will probably come from the mess hall. It's mostly for the fridge."

Blake followed her. The scent of the blonde had already faintly permeated the entire apartment. She'd probably been here for a few hours already. It all gave off the same feeling that put Blake on edge like nothing so subtle had ever done to her. She hoped she got used to it soon.

Following Yang into the bedroom, she dropped her bags on the floor. The apartment was certainly spacious enough. The central room was as big as some entire places she'd lived at in the past, with two big couches, a TV, a large table, and a small sectioned-off kitchen area. The bedroom had two double beds in it, one against the right wall and one in the middle of the room, as well as two dressers and a rather large closet.

"Ta-da! Home sweet home. Make yourself comfortable. The bed in the middle is mine, and so's that dresser. You can put stuff in the other half of the closet too. Bathroom's through that door there. Come on out when you're ready. I'm just starting an episode of Daredevil." Yang grinned at her and then walked back out into the main room. Blake stared after her for a second, then got to unpacking.

The shower felt great. Being on a train or in stations for nearly twenty-four hours kind of does that to you. She spent entirely too long relaxing in the hot water, which gave some time to reflect on the girl who was to be her partner for the next four years.

Blake was fairly tall for a girl. But Yang was at least three inches taller than her, definitely over six feet. She had been wearing a tight tank top that put her musculature on full display. Her back in particular looked like it had been the subject of a lot of work, and maybe steroids too? Blake hadn't seen her weapon anywhere though. Still, on first inspection it seemed her fears about getting an incompetent partner were unfounded.

Her hair was darker than most blondes, but had almost a copper tint to it rather than the 'dirty blond' effect. She wondered if Yang wore contacts to change her eye color to that violet, or if it was natural like hers. The cynical side of her pointed out that that was exactly the thing she was so sick of everyone asking her.

Once she'd dried off and gotten dressed, she stepped back out into the main room and instantly felt the relaxation given to her by the heat of the shower slip from her muscles and adrenaline seep into her as Yang's scent filled her nose again. Yeah, that was something she'd have to find a way to talk to the blonde about as well.

"Hey," Yang gave her a saucy grin and patted the seat on the sofa beside her. "Come on, sit down. I have popcorn and a variety of soft drinks. Want something?"

"Maybe some Sprite?" Blake managed weakly. She'd had dinner a couple of hours ago on the train, but was pretty thirsty.

Yang jumped up and grabbed a can from the fridge, flipping it at Blake. She caught it as gently as she could and popped the tab. Yang looked incredulous when not a single drop of the liquid fizzed over the side. Emboldened slightly, Blake stuck her tongue out at her and drank.

The show was some kind of action flick. Blake didn't know too much about it. Truth be told, she hadn't had cable TV where she'd lived for many years and didn't particularly bother keeping up with it online, as she preferred books anyway. She might have gotten a bit more into the show if it weren't for the incredibly distracting presence next to her.

At some point Yang had declared that Blake was too tense (no shit?) and had started rubbing her shoulders and neck with one hand. Blake surprised herself when instead of shying away from the physical contact with what was still pretty much a stranger, she'd just relaxed into it. The skittishness she felt around Yang just slowly slipped away as they sat there with the girl's arm around her shoulders. The show seemed to end in no time at all.

"Awesome!" Yang enthused, bouncing over to the fridge to grab more drinks. "How did you like it, Blakey?"

Blake raised her eyebrow slightly at the nickname. "It was ... cool. I don't really watch much TV though."

Yang casually threw her arm around Blake again as she leaned back.

"So tell me about yourself. Where do you come from? Why'd you want to come here?" she asked.

Blake considered for a second. "I'm from Mistral. I read a lot and am competent with some sword-based martial arts. I wanted to come here because, well, I wanted to do something that would make the world a better place. And Beacon makes the best field-research teams there are."

"Cool! I just like adventures. And what better way to do that than going with a scientist into vast hordes of monsters? I'm from Patch, it's a small island a little ways off the coast from here, so I guess I'm a bit of a local. My, well, half, sister Ruby is going to be rooming with us too. She's a faunus. She'll tell you she's a wolf but she's pretty much a puppy, you'll be fine. Her partner is human so I hope it's okay between the two of them, I haven't met the other girl yet though. Apparently she's the reason we got such a big room for so cheap, comes from some rich family. Oh, Ruby's a fighter, like me. But honestly that's just her choice. She'd make it in here if she applied as a scientist too."

Blake tried to restrain the whirlwind of energy. "Whoa slow down, what do you mean I'll be fine?"

Yang paused for a second. "Well, I know cats don't get along too well with wolves in general. But honestly she's the sweetest thing."

Blake's knees felt weak. "How did you know?"

Yang raised one eyebrow. "I've lived with a faunus for pretty much my entire life."

"You're the first human to notice," Blake muttered. Well, at least Yang treated her like a person. Maybe it would be okay after all.

Yang gave that a half-smirk before there was a banging on the door.

"Yaaaaang?" The high pitched voice was muffled through the door. Yang jumped to it, opening it to reveal a veritable pile of suitcases, a brunette with red-tipped hair and silver eyes, and a girl with hair as white as snow and eyes as blue as ice. Blake's toes curled involuntarily. _Schnee_.

"Hi! I'm Yang, as I'm sure my sister has informed you ad nauseum. That's Blake, my partner. We got the room on the right ..."

Blake barely noticed what Yang was saying, as she was investigating the new arrivals. The brunette was definitely a wolf, albeit the least threatening one she'd ever encountered. She didn't see any obvious Faunus characteristics so it was probably a pair of wolf ears taped back against her head. And fortunately, despite their half blood relation, she did not seem to smell anything like Yang. The other arrival, though, was the problem.

Weiss Schnee was ... well known to her. The heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, a mining company that used what basically amounted to Faunus slave labor. They used their wealth and influence liberally to protect their ability to systematically oppress her people in a society that already didn't give a damn about them. There was a certain irony that she was now going to live with two Faunus, including sharing a room with one. Not that she knew that yet.

The only thing was, Blake had no idea why she was here. It's not like Beacon had anything to do with business. There was no reason for a wealthy heiress to be at an school dedicated to researching the Grimm. For that reason alone, Blake decided she would try to at least get to know the girl. She definitely would not reveal her Faunus heritage though. Then Yang sat down beside her again and shattered her thought process.

"Hey, kitty-cat. The best ice cream shop in the world is a few minutes walk from here, we were planning on going as a team building exercise when Weiss finishes unpacking. You down?"

"Don't call me that. But, sure," Blake said. She rotated herself to a semi lying down position on the armrest of the sofa and pulled out the book she hadn't quite managed to finish on the train. The Schnee girl had like six suitcases, this was going to take a while.

It was nearly midnight by the time they set out for this legendary ice cream place. Ruby had backed up Yang's claim, albeit with a lot more hand waving and gushing. Apparently she was two years younger than the others, although Blake could barely believe she was sixteen. Blake had had some experiences with wolves and would rather have not repeated them, but Yang was correct in her "puppy" assessment.

The ice cream shop had quite a lot of people in it for being so late at night. Two of them were faunus, one a short girl with large rabbit ears and one a blond boy with a long monkey tail. Both stiffened almost imperceptibly as the group walked in, although none of the humans did. Speaking of humans, Blake recognized one of them, sitting at a large table with a tall boy bearing messy blond hair, and lead her team over to meet.

"Hello again!" Pyrrha smiled. "Is this your new team?"

Whatever Blake was about to say was run over by Ruby. "Yeah! Team RWBY! Get it? Because Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang! Also it sounds like Ruby."

"Yeah, well then we're, uh, Juniper!" the scraggly blond declared. "Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, Ren."

"Oh really? Which might you be?" Yang asked.

"The name's Jaune Arc, short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it!" he enthused.

"Really?" Yang smiled coquettishly. "I've heard a lot from the ladies about Jaune Arc's tongue."

Ruby smacked her in the back of the head. "Bad Yang. No ice cream for you tonight."

Jaune's face turned a shade of red to match Weiss'. And then a girl with pink hair and an almighty hammer strapped to her back walked up, practically dragging the incarnate of tall, dark, and handsome behind her.

"Guess what I got you guys!" she declared. "Well, not you guys. Just my team."

"Uh, ice cream?" Blake said, thankful for the opportunity to get a word in.

The pink girl pouted. "Not fair. You're not allowed to use your mind-reading semblance."

"We're literally in an ice cream shop," the boy behind her said.

"Listen Ren, if I wanted your sass..." the girl said. "Oh by the way, I'm Nora, the most fabulous hammerstorm you'll ever meet."

"I'm Ruby and I'm getting ice cream for my team, so be right back," Ruby said, and then dashed off. She cleared the width of the shop in under a second, followed by a trail of rose petals that evaporated when they hit the ground. Well, that's one semblance figured out.

The rest of the night was a blur, a whirlwind of energy from Yang, Ruby, Nora, and Jaune that the other four seemed to get caught up in. The ice cream was indeed as good as Yang and Ruby had made it out to be, followed by a visit to a bar (the bouncer let them in after Yang had "a word" with him), a walk down to the pier in which several rather drunk teenagers ended up in the water (good thing it was late summer), and a stop at a Chinese food restaurant ("It's been like eight hours since dinner!"). Blake ended up being unceremoniously tossed onto her bed after 4:00 AM.

"Night, kitty-cat," Yang said, her violet eyes seeming to shine in the darkness.

Blake didn't have the energy to fight it. "Night, Yang." And promptly passed out.

* * *

The clock read 1:16. Blake groaned to herself. She'd never slept that late before. Then again, she'd never gone out that late with people before. Always the introvert, her new friends seemed to be able to bring something out in her.

A familiar mane of golden hair attached to a pair of purple eyes and a blinding smile poked into the room.

"Good afternoon, kit."

Blake threw her pillow at her.

"Come on, get up. It's a new day, and we've got so much stuff to do!"

Blake groaned, sitting up. Apparently she'd fallen asleep in her clothes. She quickly changed and stepped out of the room and into an argument.

"She's sixteen!" A certain white-haired and very indignant girl was pointing in a very indignant way towards Ruby, who looked at Blake with a face that said "save me".

"You're underage too," Yang said drily.

"Exactly!" Weiss was now pointing in her indignant way at Yang. "If we'd been caught, we could have been in huge trouble. They expel people for that!"

"Why did you come in then?"

"Because, oh I don't know, I was _dragged_?"

"She was," Blake said. "It was funny."

"And," Yang continued, "I suppose someone poured an entire pitcher of sangria down your throat?"

Weiss' face was bright red, chewing at words she didn't know how to say.

"This part of Vale is a university town, princess," Yang said. "Everyone drinks, nobody cares. Even if it's only to rebel against your parents."

Weiss' eyes seemed to almost pop out of her skull. "Why you ..."

"Weiss..." Ruby put a hand on her shoulder. Weiss looked at her, fury muted temporarily. "Nobody got hurt, and you had just as much fun as anyone else. We won't make a habit out of it, okay? I don't like it when you two fight."

Weiss stared at her for a second before grumbling out a small "Fine."

Blake spoke up. "Anyone else starving?"

They met the JNPR group, who had apparently also just gotten up, in the mess hall. Pyrrha was chipper as ever, Ren was feeding water to a flattened Nora, and Jaune was using the table as a pillow. They had some kind of brunch buffet out. Yang and Ruby piled their plates with sausages and waffles with maple syrup, Blake had an omelette, and Weiss had some kind of salad Blake didn't even recall seeing anywhere. She wanted to tour Vale during the day, which Ruby and Yang were super excited about, but JNPR collectively decided they were going to stay inside.

Vale was quite the spectacle during the day. Beacon was on the outskirts, but still close to the downtown area. It had an extensive monorail system that Blake and Weiss got season passes for, and they spent much of the early afternoon touring the vast selection of shops, markets, and even a large group of street performers playing the "cantina band" from Star Wars, complete with solos for every instrument. Yang and Weiss were both impressed enough to throw some money into their instrument cases. When they were heading back to Beacon for dinner though, they saw the dust shop.

Windows smashed, police lines outside, and the shop completely bereft of dust. Two detectives were discussing animatedly outside. The four girls approached for a closer look.

"It doesn't make any sense! They left all the money, and just took the dust. The stock was low too. You could buy more dust than that with what was in the till!" one of the detectives claimed in exasperation.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" the other one asked. "Thinking the White Fang was here?"

"Yeah, I'm thinking we don't get paid enough!" the first one said.

"The White Fang," Weiss glowered. "What a bunch of low-lives. Faunus only know how to lie, cheat, and steal."

Blake bristled slightly, but didn't say anything. The group made the trip back to their dorm room in silence. Ruby broke it when they sat down.

"Not all faunus are like that though, Weiss," Ruby said.

"They pretty much are," Weiss said bluntly. "You haven't dealt with them like I have."

"Pray tell," Yang drawled, "how have you dealt with faunus?" She put her arm around Blake as if in reassurance. Blake bit back what she was about to say.

"The White Fang and my family have been at war for a while now. War. As in actual bloodshed. My father came home furious every night and that made for a rather difficult childhood!"

"But Weiss, not all faunus are part of the White Fang," Ruby said, a desperate look in her eyes. "Remember the bunny girl and the monkey boy from the ice cream shop last night?"

"Yeah, I did," Weiss said. "And did you see that very same monkey boy steal two apples when we went to the market? One crime here, one crime there, and eventually they'll all run off to join that group of crooks."

"But there's good faunus too," Ruby pleaded. "I've met them. I've had friends who were faunus."

"I've never met a good one," Weiss said. "Eventually, they'll all turn."

Trembling, Ruby reached her hands towards her head and pulled. Two strips of tape came off, and two triangular wolf ears, gray tipped with red, stood up on her head. Weiss' face turned crimson. Ruby burst into tears and ran into her room. Weiss slowly turned her head towards where Blake and Yang sat on the sofa.

"Good job," Yang said levelly.

"You just let that happen?" Weiss asked, a mask of shock.

"Don't blame what you said on me. Go fix it."

"How?" Weiss asked, her face flushed.

"I'm not fixing your problems for you. You two are partners for the next four years, so you had better start acting like it. Starting with actually listening to her. Go."

Weiss stood up as if in a daze and slowly walked over to the room.

Yang yawned, unconcerned. "Join me for a nap before dinner?" She stood up.

Blake nodded, following her into the room. "I think I could use one. Especially after that."

"She honestly is a good kid," Yang said. "I don't blame her."

"What? Why? She literally just ripped on your sister's race in front of you. She's a _Schnee_ , Yang. You know what they've done to the faunus. Her family is the reason I have to wear a bow over my ears!"

Yang looked at her, violet eyes seeming to pierce right through her. "You know that's not true. Schnee is not the only cause of human versus faunus tension. And even if they were, no matter how awful the crimes her family has committed, you cannot attribute the sins of her parents to her."

"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, Yang!"

Yang sat down on her bed. Blake mirrored. "Think about what you just said. You know only Jacques Schnee, the CEO of the SDC. That is what you know about the Schnee, so all Schnees become him. She knows only the White Fang, a terrorist organization dedicated to wiping out her family. She's probably never met a faunus before. It's not like you guys are common. That is all she knows about faunus, so all faunus become the White Fang. We're all the same on the inside, Blake. And you have just as much to work through as Weiss does."

"You're awful defensive about a family that uses my species for slave labor!" Blake stood up.

Yang's amethyst gaze pierced her through the head. The now familiar imperative to run started surfacing its head, but it was as if she couldn't move.

"You didn't listen to what I said, Blake. You heard what you feel on the inside. I don't defend their family. What the Schnee Dust Company has done to your species is a crime against humanity and I know it's a big reason of why you're here. All I am saying is that Weiss _personally_ has not committed these crimes. Sins aren't inherited. If nothing else, we have the heiress to the SDC in our group. We can change her. We've already started doing so. Come on, Blake. Have a nap with me. We can work through this after, okay?"

Blake shakily released a breath she didn't know she was holding. The adrenaline died down inside of her. "Okay," she said quietly and sat down on her bed.

Dinner was ... awkward. JNPR joined them for a bit but their attempts to cheer up the morose air RWBY had failed utterly. At least Ruby and Weiss sat next to each other, although they didn't say much. They had strawberries in ice cream for dessert; Weiss gave hers to Ruby, soliciting a smile, genuine despite its small size. Blake didn't have much to say about anything, leaving Yang to awkwardly joke with Jaune and Nora for a bit before the latter went to the common room to play games.

Yang declared that as a team they had a lot to work out, and thus they were going to have a workout. This also gave a great opportunity to try out Beacon's sparring arenas. After having grabbed their weapons (Weiss had a rapier, Ruby had some kind of giant metal thing all folded up into itself, and Yang had nothing for some reason) they made their way to the almost completely empty arenas for some 1v1s.

Blake stood across from Yang and deftly drew Gambol Shroud. A small katana connected to a long ribbon that wrapped around her arm fit inside a sheath with a bladed edge for dual wielding. Yang merely smiled and assumed an unarmed fighting stance. A small ripple of light caught Blake's eye and she saw the backs of Yang's hands and wrists shining with a dull gold color. The blonde grinned lasciviously and beckoned with the index and middle fingers of her right hand. Blake felt her face burning and jumped at her, slashing down with her katana.

Instead of dodging like she'd expected, Yang blocked the hit squarely with the gold patch on the back of her forearm, releasing a dull _ting_ sound, like metal on carbon. Blake was knocked several feet backwards by the force of the impact. Yang then released a flurry of punches into the air. Each punch released a concussive _pock_ sound and a small burst of flame. Blake dodged them all, using her semblance to generate shadow clones to absorb the hits instead and cause chaos. She flipped behind the blonde, now on the offensive as Yang punched another clone. A strike downwards on her shoulder blade, blocked at the last second. But Blake was already swiping the sheath at Yang's side. Yang blocked every hit but she was stepping backwards towards the wall of the arena. Blake unleashed one final flurry of blows to force Yang the rest of the way back, but instead of following, she threw her katana so the ribbon would wrap around Yang's torso, immobilizing her. Except Yang _grinned_ , and caught the handle of the katana, _midair_ , wrenching it backwards. The ribbon, still wrapped around Blake's arm, yanked her into the air and flying at the blonde, who stepped out of the way and caught Blake just before she crashed into the wall of the arena. Then she proceeded to pin her there. Blake felt the hackles rise on the back of her neck as she caught a breath of Yang's now familiar scent and stared, wild-eyed, into lilac eyes just inches from her own. She needed to run, to get away, or get closer. But she couldn't move, and it wasn't just because Yang was clearly several times stronger than her.

Yang gently pulled her into a hug. "Don't be afraid, kitty-cat." Blake melted into her.

"Come on," Yang said, and picked her up princess-style. "Let's see how the lovebirds are doing."

Weiss and Ruby were also done sparring. They sat side by side, talking. Ruby was giggling at something. Yang put Blake on the floor, walking over to them.

"Hey Rubes," Yang drawled carelessly. "Wanna give the nerds a show?"

"You're on," Ruby said, extending the red lump of metal into a giant scythe taller than she. The lack of shock on Weiss' face at least confirmed they'd done some sparring.

"My money's on Ruby," Weiss said. "I've never seen anyone fight like that."

"She's the younger sister," Blake said. "I've been training to fight all my life and Yang sort of did a number on me."

"I don't want to hear what you two are doing privately," Weiss said, wincing.

Blake blushed. "What exactly do you mean by that?"

"You've been making eyes at her literally the whole time I've been here," Weiss said. "You can hardly look away from her."

"No, that's not ... Augh, Weiss, we have to talk about this later. It's not what you think it is."

"Sure it's not," Weiss said, looking at her with some humor.

Weiss was certainly in a good mood, Blake mused. Things must have gone okay with Ruby.

"So, little sis," Yang said casually. "How do you want to go out this time? Aura level or ring out?"

"How about in your dreams?" Ruby crowed, and then flashed forward in a dash of rose petals. And then went flying twenty feet into the air in an explosion of flame as Yang stood, completely unmoved, with one fist in the air. What followed was the most gratuitous display of fighting absurdity that Blake had ever seen.

Fire exploded everywhere as Yang shot fireballs from her bare fists at Ruby as she flew through the air. Controlling her flight with shots from her scythe, which also appeared to be a gun, as well as bursts of rose petals from her semblance, Ruby played the distance game before once more closing in on Yang. The scythe was bigger than she was and yet she attacked twice a second, with a sustained but visceral ferocity, while dodging Yang's own attacks. And yet Yang blocked every hit dead on without moving an inch. No longer exploding flame with each punch, her fingers trailed flame as she blocked, and carved out paths in the air sending out swathes of flame for Ruby to dodge. The relentless _ping ping ping_ of strike after strike had both Weiss and Blake at the edge of their seats. Still, even though Yang seemed unfazed, her aura dropped with each hit.

"Nice warm-up you have set out here!" Yang crowed, effortlessly blocking several hits that may have proven lethal to anyone who didn't display this casually superhuman strength and speed. "Going to actually hit me sometime soon?"

"You're going down!" Ruby panted.

"In _your_ dreams," Yang smirked and slammed her fists together. A shockwave of flame blew out of her, eyes flaring red. She changed her stance and unleashed a flurry of blows, and now Ruby was on the back foot. She dodged every hit, but Yang performed a combination attack of punches with an overhead kick that hit Ruby full in the gut with a fireball when she dodged the first ones. She slammed into the ground. Yang was already in the air, jumping at her, hands together as if in a prayer position with her thumbs at the front of her mouth. Fire blew into the air, out her fingers and over her head, as she flew through the air, and then when she struck downwards with both hands there was a huge explosion of flame that splashed against the walls of the arena. Ruby's aura level instantly went from 92% to 5%. She made a huge show of gasping for air. With her last choking breath, she managed "Weiss... avenge me!" and then her head fell over to the side, tongue lolling out.

Yang threw Ruby over her shoulder, her scythe over the other, and carried them out of the arena. Ruby opened one eye, then closed it again and redoubled her tongue lolling. Weiss snickered behind her hand. Yang grinned at Blake as the four of them left the arena.

Later, Weiss and Blake were alone in the room. Yang and Ruby had decided they were still hungry after their match and went to the mess hall to see if it was still open, sending the other two to the room to pick out a movie to watch. Blake wanted to watch an intrigue spy movie, but Weiss wanted a romantic comedy citing that she never got to watch movies at home. Blake reluctantly ceded, and suggested _The Princess Bride_. After all, everyone should watch it once. She pulled out her book again.

"One more thing," Weiss said.

"Hm?"

"I still feel really bad about what happened. Ruby's mostly forgiven me, but I really want to make it up to her. Could you come to the city with me tomorrow to pick up a present for her?"

Blake looked up, surprised. "Why me? Yang knows the city much better."

"She's Ruby's sister," Weiss said. "I'm pretty sure she kind of hates me for what I did. You can help me more than her."

Blake thought back to Yang's words. _We can change her_. She made her decision. "Yes. I'd love to help you."

Besides, Weiss did have a pretty smile when it was genuine.

* * *

Weiss was gushing and raving by the end of the movie. As Ruby indulged Weiss' explanations of everything she noticed, Yang suggested to Blake that they go to bed and leave the other two alone. They retired to their room. Blake used the little reading light in the vain hope that maybe she could finally finish it. It gave off enough light for her faunus night vision to be able to see, but was dim enough that Yang's human vision would barely notice. But try as she might, she couldn't focus on the book. She would read a page and then realize none of it sunk in, and have to go back to read it again. Sighing, she dropped her book into her lap.

"Weiss asked me to go with her tomorrow to get a make-up present for Ruby," she said.

"Mm?" Yang perked up slightly, rolling over.

"You never explained why you trusted her with just letting her deal with Ruby."

Yang opened her palm, face up. A tongue of flame ignited over it like a big candle, softly illuminating the room in flickering light.

"I don't believe Weiss has it in her to voluntarily hurt Ruby. I've made sure she knows that I definitely have it in me to hurt her if she does. But I don't think I even needed to say it. Weiss thinks that Ruby is childish sometimes but she recognizes that they're partners. And they have one thing Weiss has never had before, a true unconditional friendship. Weiss inadvertently did just about everything possible to break it apart and it didn't work, and she knows that. That's why she feels so awful about it and wants to make it right."

Blake summoned courage for a second, then said, "It's funny in a way. Our team."

"Hm?"

"We have two faunus, a Schnee, and someone who terrorizes every faunus they come across."

"Me?"

"Yeah you. Everywhere we go. I don't know why, but as soon as any faunus notices your presence, they get skittish like crazy. There was a panther today at the market. A panther, Yang. And he just about ran from the building when you walked up to the stall next to him. Predator faunus spook others, but you spook the predators. Let alone that poor rabbit at the ice cream shop. Why?"

Yang laughed gently. "Are you trying to tell me you're scared of me?"

"Yes! No. Maybe. That's not the point. I wanted to run away the moment you opened that door. I still do. I almost passed out when you pushed me into the wall at the arena."

"Are you coming on to me?" Yang grinned saucily at her.

"Ugh! You're infuriating," Blake said, rolling over to stare at the wall.

"Come on, Blakey, don't be like that."

Blake didn't say anything for a minute, collecting her thoughts, before speaking again.

"Ruby."

"What?"

"Ruby," Blake said again. "She's the most incredible fighter I've ever seen in my life. I've been training literally my whole life to defend myself but I would never, ever be able to even touch that girl. But you just ... took her apart. How is that even possible?"

Yang was quiet for another second, and had a much more serious tone when she spoke again.

"Beacon. As you probably know already, this is not a normal school. They're not just training scientists and fighters here. They're creating an army."

It was Blake's turn to be nonplussed. "What?"

"It's not about borders, or allegiances, or anything else like that. It's quite literally the light versus the dark. Even now, every modern city protects itself against the Grimm. We've been fighting these things for thousands upon thousands of years and we still know virtually nothing about them. We don't know where they come from, where they go, or why they attack like they do. They don't obey traditional laws of the universe, that apply to literally everything except for them. They've disappeared, to an extent, over the last hundred years. But that doesn't mean they're gone forever, it just means we gotta find out what happened to them.

"I don't doubt that your abilities as a scientist are at least on a level with mine as a fighter. That's my job. Protect you from the Grimm while you do your thing. It's not just about being good though. Beacon is a school, don't forget. A school is not where the best come to show their skill, it's for those who can improve, to do so. They don't just take the best of the best, they take those people who can get the most out of these four years here. People who have something that inspires them, drives them for a goal. They don't want to deal with people who don't have the utmost of motivation to be here and try their best. They want those people who will become the best that they have to offer, not already are. And that includes you, and it includes me.

"Everyone has secrets here. Look around you next time you're at the mess hall and see all the faces. Everyone has a purpose, a reason to be here that goes far beyond just 'I want to kick some monsters in the nads'. Some of them are more secret than others. Look at Jaune. Does that look to you like someone who's original research is going to change the world? But he's here, just the same as you are. That's no accident.

"We all have things that can change. We all have faults that can be stabilized, flaws that can be edged out. We can all improve in ways you might not even be able to imagine when you don't know who someone really is. The first thing they teach you about this school is to cast you into roles. Scientist or fighter. You learn to think or you learn to hit. And the biggest mistake you can make is believing that. We live in a different world here. One of heroes and monsters, data and nightmare. Outside, not everything is as it seems. But in here, virtually nothing is. Everyone has a story, just like you."

Silence fell for a while. Then Blake spoke: "You told me yesterday that you were just here for the adventure. That's obviously not true."

"Of course it isn't. I'll tell you why I'm really here when you tell me the same." Yang smiled at her, but there was no facetious nature to it.

"Who are you, Yang?"

"Who are you?"

Blake didn't have a response to that one.

Yang spoke again. "It's like 2:00 AM, I'm going to sleep." She closed her fist, the flame flicking into nothing.

"Goodnight, Yang," Blake said quietly.

"Goodnight, kitty-cat."

"Hey!"

* * *

Blake and Weiss left for Vale after lunch on the pretense of academic pursuits. Ruby went somewhere with JNPR and Yang went to work out in the gym. The pair found themselves in downtown Vale, shopping district.

"What were you thinking of getting her?" Blake asked.

"Well, you know how much she loves weapons?"

"Er, not really..." Blake said. "I haven't spent that much time talking to her actually."

"She's a total fiend about it. Apparently she designed her scythe-gun-thing herself, spent hundreds of hours improving it and modifying it. She named it too, Crescent Rose. Or sometimes just 'sweetheart'." Weiss waggled her fingers for the air quotes.

"Jealous?" Blake said, smirking.

"What? No! You're as bad as Yang!" Weiss said indignantly. "But I was thinking, it's not maybe the most traditional make-up present, but Ruby might like it..."

She pulled Blake into a dust shop.

"I sent them the specs and ordered it yesterday evening," she said with pride. Directing her attention to the shopkeep, she declared: "Weiss Schnee for pickup."

The man pulled a box from under the desk. Blake peered into it. It was filled with flat rectangular objects that had different symbols in black.

"Custom dust rounds for her sniper rifle," Weiss said. "I even got this special blend for the recoil effect."

Blake raised her eyebrows. "I'm impressed. I think she'll love it."

Weiss closed the lid and grabbed the handle on one side. "Give me some help here..."

They got back to the room fairly quickly. Ruby wasn't back yet, so they deposited the box in Weiss' room, and Blake went back to her room to get her book. She opened the door, and froze.

Yang Xiao Long was sleeping face down in her bed with nothing on but short shorts and a sports bra. Blonde hair swept down her muscled back to her narrow waist, broad shoulders casually sprawled across her pillow, thin, gold, scaled gauntlets covered from her fingers to the middle of her forearms, a matching set splashed from toes to mid calves... and two huge, golden, reptilian wings, draped carelessly, nearly spanned the 18-foot width of the bedroom.

The animal instincts reared up in Blake as Yang's utterly alien scent struck her. She couldn't move, couldn't breathe. And then Yang shifted slightly, almost raising her head.

Blake ran. She just ran. She didn't know where, just out of the room, down the stairs, and away from Beacon Academy.


	2. Chapter 2

**Bonaventure, part II**

Yang raised her head, to look at the door standing ajar. She smelled Blake's scent, like she'd just been standing there.

"Well, shit," she muttered. The scales on her arms and legs receded and her wings folded into nothing. She threw on a tank top and stuck her head into the main room. Seeing nobody there, she knocked on Weiss' and Ruby's door. Weiss opened it.

"Um, hi, I wasn't expecting you guys to be back so soon. Where's Blake?"

Weiss looked confused. "She's not with you?"

Yang turned around and walked over to the window behind the sofa, looking out over Vale.

"What happened?" Weiss asked from behind her.

Yang didn't turn around. "I don't know. I was asleep. She saw something that, I think, might have scared her."

"Like what?" Yang could hear the frown in Weiss' voice.

Yang looked at her coolly. "I don't know if you've figured this out yet, but you're the only human on the team."

Weiss did a double-take.

"Faunus have complex relationships sometimes. Social dynamic is not the same as between humans. Blake just needs a bit of space. She'll be fine."

"Wait, wait wait," Weiss said, incredulous. "All three of you are faunus?"

Yang turned back to the window. "This is a conversation that should happen when Blake gets back."

Weiss stood there for a second, gawping. "So when I made some ... short-sighted comments to Ruby yesterday..."

"As I said, a conversation for when Blake gets back." Yang let a bit of iron creep into her voice. "I need to hit something, I'm going to the gym. And if Blake returns before I do, for God's sake tell her I want to talk to her."

She didn't wait for a response, just left a flustered Weiss floundering in the room.

"Hello again!" Pyrrha greeted Yang cheerily when she walked into the gym. "Need a sparring partner?"

"Not this time, but thanks anyway." Yang walked over to the hanging sand bag.

About fifteen minutes later, she walked back, covered in sand. "... Is that offer still open?"

Pyrrha grinned at her.

* * *

Blake was not back when Yang returned to the room, neither was she present for dinner. When the sun set and darkness was falling, Yang decided pacing wasn't enough anymore.

"I'm going to find her."

Ruby looked up at her. "That's more like it! We're ready, right, Weiss?"

"Not this time, Rubes. This is one I have to do myself," Yang said quietly.

"Oh," Ruby said, downcast. "Well, good luck!"

"Thanks," Yang said, and left the room. As soon as the door closed, her stance changed subtly, shoulders forward and balancing more on the balls of her feet than the heels.

Nothing gave any indication of where Blake went. The handle on the door to the stairs might have had a hint of her scent on it. Probably sweaty palms. But there were a thousand other things too, all buried within the metal oxides. Yang jumped down a flight at a time and ran out of the building. It was getting dark earlier now. That was good. Yang could see, humans couldn't. Some faunus could, but Yang doubted that Blake got into any trouble by them. Then again, there was a lot she didn't know about her partner.

A hint of her scent. There, leading into the alley. The scales, already forming on Yang's wrists, had a dark amethyst luster rather than the gold they appeared in sunlight, but there was nothing there. The alley was empty except for a drunk lying in an alcove and a couple of trash bins. But her nose lead her to something. Lying on the ground, a little black ribbon, dirty from where it landed on the pavement. Yang wound it around her fingers into a bow. She looked up at the wall, and ever so faintly, an insignia scratched into it: a crude wolf's head with three claw markings scratched across it.

Fire burned in her throat. She snapped out her wings, leaping into the air and pushing down with her wings to help her jump to the top of a two-story building in a single leap. Few people were still out in this area at night. She landed down on one of the main streets, wings folding in, and pushed into the bar there.

She walked up to the bar. The bartender jumped and immediately walked over to her. "Yang?"

"Junior. Are there White Fang in the city?"

The bartender seemed surprised by the abrupt question. "Er, yes, actually, a bunch of them arrived yesterday. Haven't figured out from where, though. My boys aren't very friendly with them, if you know what I mean."

Yang flipped him a coin and was halfway out of the bar before Junior called out to her. "Don't you want a drink first?"

"Maybe later," she said, and was on the street again, taking off at a run towards the docks.

There was a separate dock for the Schnee freighter, of course. Half again as long as any other ship in the harbor, it bore a huge, white, snowflake, and opaque windows. And Blake's trail lead straight to it. There was a pervasive aura of fear and death around the freighter. Many dead humans. Some dead faunus, some alive. And they had Blake. Blake was her partner. Not theirs. _Hers_. The world descended into red.

Two spears were leveled at her by humans in white uniforms as she approached. She barely even registered it. Deflect spears up, two fast strikes and they were gone. Jumping onto the deck, she entered the crew's cabin and went downstairs. The ship was almost completely empty, but Yang could hear several sets of breathing from behind one of the doors. She came in hard. Her right palm split the door from bottom to top and the punch with her left hand sent both pieces flying forward in different directions. Three masked faunus jumped up in surprise, and Blake's eyes widened where she sat, cuffed to a chair in the middle of the room. Yang jumped inside the room, snapping out her wings. Their razor-sharp edges flicked both door guards into opposite walls. Sliding under the third faunus' sword, she kicked his legs out from under him and punched him into the floor by the throat with an audible _crack_. She leaped over to Blake, hands coming down on the girl's wrists. The metal bonds around them twisted and ripped under her fingers and she pulled Blake into her arms. Twisting around, she punched a hole in the side of the ship, facing away from the harbor, and jumped through it.

Her wings flared just before reaching the water, sending them shooting forward. Blake pressed her face into Yang's shoulder and Yang pulled her tight. She swooped up high into the air, violet blending against the night sky, and flew over the city back to Beacon. The wind rushing past them made talking impossible, but Yang extended her aura to cover the faunus. She landed outside the dormitory building, keyed herself in, and, still carrying Blake, walked into the room.

Weiss and Ruby were waiting for them, eyes widening as Yang walked in. She carefully set Blake on the couch.

"You need water?"

Blake was still just looking at her with wide eyes. She looked shell-shocked and barely managed a curt nod. Yang cursed herself silently and got her a glass.

"So does anyone want to tell me _what the hell is going on_?" Weiss asked.

Yang opened her mouth to talk but was interrupted by a knocking on the door. She opened it to see two Atlesian military men in white uniforms standing at the door, armed with spears. Atlesian military men. White uniforms. Schnee freighter. _Oh fuck._

"Come with us, please," one of them said.

Yang turned her head back to the team. "Ruby, take care of Blake. Weiss, make sure nobody leaves or enters this room, for any reason. We will discuss everything when I get back." She turned, was quickly flanked by the guards, and walked with them out of the building and towards Beacon's main tower.

Ozpin was waiting in his expansive office inside the clock at the top of the tower. General James Ironwood of the Atlesian military was standing by Ozpin's desk.

Nobody said anything for a second. Then Yang, bluntly: "How many of them are dead?"

"Four," Ozpin said. "Three in the main room in the cabin and one in one of the crew member's bedrooms."

"So the guards made it," Yang said.

"One is in critical condition," Ironwood said coldly. "But he looks like he will. The other is fine, aside from a broken collarbone."

Yang held her head in her hands.

"Why? I ... I don't understand. Ironwood, if they're your men why were they even there? I can't believe they were deliberately guarding a White Fang operation."

Ironwood sighed. "Just now, we received the report. The Fang attacked the ship from the back. They were stealthy and managed to pirate the ship, killing all the crew in their sleep, without any audible disturbance. Whether there were more than the four currently being investigated is unknown. Any living member may have fled when a disturbance made itself known."

"Why were you even there, Yang?" Ozpin asked wearily.

"They had Blake."

"What?" his eyes snapped open wide.

"She was alone in the city. They just came across her in an alley, and recognized her or something. I don't know why. I haven't exactly gotten a chance to talk to her, you know."

"That explains a lot," Ozpin said slowly.

"I tracked her to the docks after she was missing for a few hours. I could tell she was in danger and I reacted."

"They're terrorists," Ironwood said. "They took one of our ships and killed my crew. But that does not give you a pass to respond in kind. You will stand trial."

"No, she will not," Ozpin said firmly. "Nobody will know about her involvement. Yang, you carry a heavy burden through your life. But that doesn't excuse you when you slip. It just means that you have to be stronger than this. That's life. You will stay here, at this school, and you will learn to be a huntress. But you may consider this your only warning. You will be placed in situations like this many times in the future, and if you cannot control yourself then innocent people will die."

"I know," Yang said, very quietly.

"Thank you for your time, Miss Xiao Long. You may go."

Yang nodded, turned and stepped into the elevator. She did not look back.

Blake was still sitting on the couch, staring at her, when she walked back into the room. Ruby looked worried and Weiss looked frustrated but calm.

"Thank god you're back. She won't say anything ..." Weiss said, but Yang ignored her, kneeling in front of Blake.

"Are you okay?"

A small nod.

"Blake, I need you to know. I will never hurt you, okay?"

"You killed those people. They ... they were dead. Gone."

That upset Weiss' cool a little bit. Ruby looked even more worried.

"Remember our conversation? It's why I'm here." Yang looked at her hands. "When someone I am close to is in trouble, or is hurt, I ... Let me tell you, tell both of you, I guess, why I am who I am. Just, please, hear me out."

She stepped back a little bit, clearing her throat. She lowered her head, flipped off her T-shirt, and let go of her form.

Wings slowly unfurled from her back. Gold scales spread from fingers and toes up her arms and legs, covering her shoulders, hips, and sides, spreading up the back of her neck, covering her head under her hair, and down the center of her forehead to the tip of her nose, spreading out to cover just the tops of her cheeks. She slowly looked up at her team.

"Dragon," Blake said. Her expression hadn't changed. Then again, it really hadn't changed since the ship. Weiss looked like someone who's had far too much thrust at them over the last day to even be able to react. Ruby reached out and took Yang's hand, squeezing encouragingly.

"I don't know how much you really know about us. Most people think we're myths. Or hope we are. Dragons live in woods and mountains, preying on wild animals and, of course, the odd human who strays too far from safety. They're pretty much wild animals themselves. My ... mother, Raven, was the exception, I guess. Dad never really said much about her. Why, or how, she ended up here. But, they met here at Beacon. They were partners, graduated together, and I was born about two years later.

"The thing about dragons is that ... we're very, very territorial. That's a big reason why we're so rare. In the wild, they just tend to kill each other. See, dragons are smart. Just as much as humans. But they don't raise their young. The children are left either to hunt, kill, and survive, or die on their own. Most will never learn even to speak. When I was born, my dad wanted my mom to be different. He always sees the good in people. But ... if you look at faunus blood, it's 80% human. Even though my dad is a human, so you'd expect me to be a halfling, my blood is 0% human. Instinct governs a lot of faunus life, particularly social interaction, so you can only imagine what it does to us. Raven lasted about two months."

Yang paused for a second in her halting speech. "She made her mistake though. She didn't kill me before she left." Weiss was gaping at her now. Even Blake looked genuinely concerned. "Probably out of some sympathy or feeling for dad. She really did love him, I think. But not me. And about a year later, Dad found someone else. Summer Rose. They had Ruby about a year after that. But Summer loved me like I was one of her own. Even though I ..." Yang looked down at her hands again, rotating her wrists.

"You don't have to," Ruby said quietly.

"I do. We're a team. We have to be honest with each other about who we are, and that's going to start with me." Yang looked up again with determination, eyes slightly blurry. "Ruby's my half-sister by blood. But to me she's always my full sister, not least because Summer was my real mom. She and dad taught me how to be human. How to feel emotion, how to care for people. I learned to hide myself." The scales receded from her face and shoulders. "I went to school. I learned to read and write. And dad and mom taught me how to fight." She smiled at that memory. "Summer was like, super-mom. Baker of cookies and slayer of giant monsters. But ... she was a huntress. A Beacon graduate. And one day she left on a mission, with her partner and our uncle Qrow, and never came back."

She paused for a second before speaking again. "Ruby was ten years old. I was twelve. Dad just kind of ... shut down. I learned for myself, how to hunt. How to take care of Ruby. We grew up on an island with a huge forest, it wasn't like anyone was there to see me. And then, years later, Raven came back. Came back to what she thought was her island."

"I was ready. She saw me, and I greeted her. But she was weak. She saw just another dragon on her territory. She still considered it hers, after all that time. And she attacked me." Yang gave a feral smile. "I was strong. Stronger than her, in body and in mind. I won."

"When dad found out, he was just ... sad. He lost Raven, lost Summer, and then when Raven came back for him, his daughter killed her. He sees the best in people. Ozpin gave me a way out. He wanted me to join his school. He thought I could do amazing things, partnered with a Mistralian girl I'd never met. The condition was that I would continue to learn and aspire to do good in the world. I have done this, all my life, but tonight I slipped. When I found Blake chained to a chair in the hold of a freighter full of White Fang members ... Gods." She shook her head. "I got scared, and I got angry. They had my partner."

Yang fell to one knee in front of Blake, looking up into her golden eyes. "Can you forgive me? Can you learn to trust me, even though I'm ... this?" The room blurred around the gold.

Blake was silent for a moment before speaking. "I had someone very dear to me change. It wasn't in an instant, but rather little choices that began to pile up. He told me not to worry. First it was accidents, then self-defense. I thought he was right. It took years to realize that he acted the way he did because he wanted to, not because he had to. But you're not him. I may have only known you for a day. But you saved my life. Yang, are you dangerous to us?"

"Never." It was barely above a whisper.

"Then, we're partners."

Yang pulled her into a tight hug, cheeks wet. "You don't know how much that means to me."

"My great-uncle was killed by a dragon," Weiss said, thoughtfully. "It was always a family legend, everyone just thought nobody really knew how he died. But I guess it was true."

"You have a real knack for finding exactly the right thing to say, don't you," Ruby said dryly. "Come on, we'll talk in our room." She dragged Weiss through the door.

Weiss sat down heavily on her bed. Ruby mirrored.

"So today I found out that I, Weiss Schnee, heir to the largest source of faunus abuse on the planet, am on a team with a mythical monster and two faunus."

Ruby let herself fall onto her side. "Yang's not a monster."

"Well, I didn't mean ..."

"If Yang only ever taught me one thing, it's that who someone is is far more important than what they are. She's not perfect. But I don't want you to think that what happened tonight is at all normal."

"I don't agree with what she did, but I'm pretty sure none of us are strangers to death. She saved our teammate and some terrorists paid for it."

"You're taking this rather well," Ruby said, peering into her eyes.

"Yeah, well, I'm starting to realize I may not have grown up around an entirely unbiased view on the world."

"You could say that again," Ruby said.

"Don't be a pest. I grew up my whole life being taught that faunus are sub-human, that they're mostly animals and can't think for themselves. And the only way I ever knew anything about them was when a White Fang operation blew up a train carriage or assassinated some high-ranking officer. My father runs a company that dehumanizes faunus. What am I supposed to do but believe him when he says it's right?"

"It's okay, Weiss. You carry the weight of your family name. Just like Yang carries the weight of what she is. It's up to you, both of you, to do the right thing." Ruby smiled.

"I ... wanted to give you something. Sort of to try and make up for what I said yesterday a little. Over here..." Weiss pulled the box out from under her bed. "Blake helped me with it, a little. So I was going to wait to give it to you until she was here too. But then, well, today happened."

"It's okay, Weiss, you really didn't have to ..." Ruby split the tape on the box with a fingernail and opened it excitedly, peering into it and then... "WEISS NO WAY THIS IS THE BEST I'M GONNA -"

"Calm down," Weiss said with a slight smile, before she was tackle-hugged by what could only be described, unfortunately, as a 120-pound puppy.

* * *

Blake and Yang sat in silence on the couch for a minute or so after the others left. Yang spoke first.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah."

"I know it's not easy. If you're uncomfortable, tell me, okay?"

"Okay." A pause, then, impulsively: "Can I touch them?"

Yang's eyebrows rose. "Them?"

"Your wings."

"If I can touch your ears." A flippant smile.

Blake stopped for a second, then, "Okay."

Yang stopped, surprised, then conceded that it was, after all, a deal. She flipped off her t-shirt for what was probably the fourth time that day, and relaxed her back. Her wings fanned out, laying on the back of the couch.

"Be careful of the edges..." Oh gods, Blake's hands...

Yang found herself pressed back against the armrest of the sofa, face flushed, with Blake staring at her with slight amusement.

"Yang Xiao Long, are you ... ticklish?"

"No!" That was maybe a little fast.

"How is that even possible? It's not even skin! They're hard." Blake was virtually crawling on her, tapping at the scales. "I don't think I could even scratch these with Gambol Shroud..."

"Um, Blake?" Yang was red for an entirely different reason now.

"Oh. Oops." Blake looked down at her. She moved backwards, trailing her fingers down Yang's sides. Yang squeaked and bucked, throwing Blake off her, gold scales guarding where Blake touched.

"You _are_..." Blake smirked at her from where she landed on the sofa.

"Shut up, you. My turn." Yang reached one hand toward her head. Blake suddenly went very still.

"You okay?" Yang said, stopping moving.

"Yeah. Just ..." Blake closed her eyes.

Very slowly, Yang tugged at the bow, unraveling it into a straight ribbon, and placed it on the back of the sofa. She touched one of the ears with two fingers. The ear flicked to the side, shying away from the contact. Yang retreated her hand for a second, and then, very gently, ran one finger from the base to the tip. A shiver went through Blake's entire body. Yang repeated the movement but with her thumb and forefinger on the edges, before stroking down and scratching gently at the base. Blake did not open her eyes, and ever so subtly tilted her head towards Yang. Yang gently rubbed between the ears, touching the silky softness of the other one and running her hand slightly through the hair at the top of Blake's head before taking her hand back.

Blake opened her eyes, shook her head, and then shifted slightly away.

"Last night. You told me you'd tell me why you were here when I told you the same. I guess you've done that."

"We don't have to, tonight," Yang said softly.

"It's okay. I just want to get this over with." She took a deep breath. "The White Fang targeted me on sight because I used to be a member of theirs. In fact, you could almost say I was born into it."

Yang tilted her head to the side slightly.

"Back then, ten, twelve years ago, the White Fang was very different. My parents died when I was very young and I was sort of adopted by someone named Adam. He was maybe ten years older than me? He was a member. Back then, they were a peaceful organization protesting the injustices and discrimination faunus face in society. It made a lot of sense to me. I was there, at the front of every protest and every boycott, and I thought we were making a difference. But that was just youthful optimism. And a few years later, a new leader stepped up. Suddenly, our protests weren't so peaceful anymore. Setting fire to shops, robbing shipments of cargo. I didn't like the direction the organization was heading, so I left. Only thing is, the White Fang isn't too fond of deserters. So I've sort of been in hiding for several years now." She looked up at Yang with a sad smile.

"Don't worry. Your time on the run has come to an end." Yang gave her a happy smile back.

"I think I'm going to go to bed," Blake said.

Yang looked at the clock. 1:55. "That's probably a good idea." She stood up and turned to look back at Blake.

Very quietly: "Thank you." And Blake walked past her, falling into bed, asleep almost instantly. Yang peeked into the other room to see Weiss and Ruby equally passed out, Weiss prim and straight in her bed with Ruby sprawled haphazardly, on top of her covers more than in them. Perhaps there were some things people are just born with.

It took a while, but eventually she, too, fell asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Arbor I**

 _PHWEEEEE_

Blake jumped up, startled, to see Ruby standing at the door with a silver whistle in her hand.

"Ruby why ..." she moaned, holding her head in her hands, as Yang grumbled incoherently into her pillow.

"Good morning, teaaaaam RWBY!"

"Weiss isn't even here..."

"Actually, I am," Weiss said from behind Ruby.

"It's time to get up, lazy butts!" Ruby crowed. "What were you two doing yesterday night?"

Yang managed to raise her head off her pillow slightly. "Averting team crisis. Go'way." She flopped her head back down.

"Guys, it's 7:00. Did you forget we have our first day of class today?"

Yang pulled the covers over her head.

"I'll get her up," Blake said, rubbing her eyes. "Go ahead, we'll meet you in the mess hall."

"Aye aye!" Ruby snapped a salute and exited the apartment, dragging Weiss behind her.

"Aren't you going to, you know, ..." Weiss gestured towards the top of her head.

Ruby considered for a second, then: "Nahhh. Come on!"

When they arrived, Ruby made a beeline for the food. Weiss followed her, bristling slightly at the occasional look and whisper as she ran by. She caught up at the cereal bar, where Ruby had a giant bowl overflowing with Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes.

"Ruby! You shouldn't eat this sugary crap all the time."

"Ish healshy, see?" Ruby said, mouth full. "'Ook, shrawberries..."

Weiss sighed and grabbed some toast with jam and a fruit bowl, following Ruby over to where JNPR already had a table. It was evident from the stack of pancakes on Nora's plate, visible above all the heads.

"Good morning, snow angel!" Jaune said.

"How are you guys always here before us?" Weiss said, ignoring the blond.

"Yang's fault," Ruby said, plopping down next to Jaune.

"Hello again!" Pyrrha said, smiling.

"Oh, wow," Jaune said, staring at Ruby's ears. "I didn't know you were a faunus. That's cool!"

"Ooooooh," Nora said, jumping off the bench. Ren caught her and pulled her back down in front of her giant plate of pancakes.

"Don't harangue her," Ren said. Nora pouted.

"Where's the other two?" Pyrrha asked.

Ruby snorted. "I just hope Blake's managed to get Yang out of bed by now."

"Is she always so ... lethargic in the morning?" Weiss asked snarkily.

"On'y when 'e doeshn' go 'oo bed afore 'oo AM" Ruby managed.

"Don't talk with your mouth full!" Weiss snapped.

"Wait, what were you guys doing yesterday?" Jaune asked. "We didn't see you at all."

"You better not have gone out without us!" Nora said, stuffing more pancake into her face.

"We just, uh did some ..." Weiss floundered.

"Team bonding," Yang said, dropping into the seat across from Ruby, next to Ren. Her hair was maybe a little bit more wild than usual.

"Speak of the devil," Jaune said.

"And I shall appear," Yang said, smiling. Her eyes slowly morphed red, staring at Jaune, and then back to violet. Jaune almost fell out of his seat.

"Stop harassing the poor boy," Blake said, sitting next to her, impeccable as ever. "Ruby, your ears ..."

"What about them?" Ruby asked, twitching them, staring pointedly at Blake's bow.

Blake shook her head slightly.

"Sooo, guys," Yang said. "Do we all have the same classes this morning?"

"Well we got basic Grimm studies and intro to partner combat, then after lunch Ren is leaving me and going to study some monster biology thing and I won't see him until dinnertime!" Nora collapsed in fake sobs, before straightening up and smiling. "But I get to hit things with my hammer, so it's not all bad."

"Sounds like what we're doing. Probably all the first years are, there's like sixteen of us in total," Ruby said.

Yang cracked her knuckles. "I'm going to enjoy this afternoon."

"Why?" Pyrrha asked with a Cheshire grin. "Looking for a rematch? Think you'll do better with weapons?"

"You're gonna be seeing stars for a week," Yang said.

"She beat you?" Blake asked in shock, remembering the sparring bout from a few days ago.

"She's _literally_ Pyrrha Nikos," Weiss said.

Realization slowly dawned on Blake's face.

"What about her?" Jaune asked.

"What?" Weiss asked, incredulous. "You've been living with her, no, _rooming_ with her for three days?"

"Um, yeah?"

"Just ... go look at the Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes box..."

"And get some too!" Ruby interjected. "They're really good with strawberries and yoghurt."

"Okay!" Jaune said, smiling at Weiss, before walking off.

"That boy is literally the most clueless human being I've ever met," Weiss said. "I don't understand how you manage, Pyrrha."

"Oh, it's no problem at all," Pyrrha said.

Jaune came running back, mouth agape. "That's you?!"

"Well, uh," Pyrrha said, rubbing her neck.

"We gotta get going," Weiss said. "We have fifteen minutes now to find where our first class is."

"Oh that's easy!" A voice came from behind them. "We found all the buildings already, you can follow us."

"Huh?" Weiss spun around to see two boys, one the monkey-tailed faunus with the open shirt and the other a _very hot_ boy with blue hair and goggles.

"I'm Sun, by the way, and this is my partner in crime, Neptune," the faunus said.

"Well hello, snow angel," Neptune said. "I don't believe I've seen you around."

"Um, I'm Weiss," she said, a little flustered. A small cry of "oh, come on," came from the other side of Ruby.

"Leeeet's go!" Nora said, dropping her cutlery onto the now empty plate, grabbing Ren and both trays, and running for the door.

* * *

"Monsters! Deeeemons! The creatures of Grimm have many names. But I prefer to call them 'prey'! Haha! Er, and so will you, upon graduating from this prestigious academy. You will learn in this course all the basics required for a partnership to effectively complete missions in the field. But first, a story, about a young, handsome adventurer. Me."

Professor Port was not, perhaps, the most engaging lecturer, and this was not new material to Blake. She quickly found her attention wandering. Yang was making an effort to listen and take notes, although the constant rippling of gold on her right wrist betrayed her a little. Ruby was very skillfully getting Weiss' goat. Balancing an apple on top of a textbook on top of a pencil on one finger was almost as impressive as getting Weiss Schnee so irritated she wasn't even taking notes. Mercy came in the form of a "hey" from her other side. Blake turned to see Sun grinning at her.

"Are you as bored here as I am?" Sun asked.

"Let's just say I'm probably going to enjoy the rest of the day more."

"So I know we just met and all. But I was wondering if you'd let me, you know, help improve your day."

Blake arched her eyebrows. "Got something in mind?"

"Well, there's this place I found by the waterfront that has the best fish and chips. Wanna check it out tonight?"

"Do up your shirt and I'll consider it on the weekend."

"Owch," Sun winced. "Puppies like to breath."

"Not in a restaurant." Blake scratched her number onto a piece of paper and pushed it towards him. "Text me."

"You got it," Sun said, pocketing it.

"HEH-HEM!" Port looked sternly at the class. The small chatter coming from everywhere quieted instantly.

"As I was saying ..." He continued to drone on.

"Did you just get asked out?" Yang asked her.

"I might have. Jealous?"

"Hmh." Her wrist was solid gold.

* * *

"First pair, Cardin Winchester and Russel Thrush vs Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long!" Glinda Goodwitch's voice echoed through the amphitheater as the pairs squared up against each other.

"In this class, you will be learning how to fight as pairs. One of you is a much more effective fighter than the other, and this will likely only increase as you go through this school. You must learn as a pair to cover your weaknesses, and that starts by example. A team has lost if either member's aura level goes below 15%. Get ready!"

"God, that poor kid," Ruby said, in the audience overlooking the arena. "Yang's gonna 1-hit KO."

"KO?" Weiss asked.

"Well," Cardin drawled from across the stage as he brandished his mace. "This really is the birds and the bees, isn't it."

"Stingers are made for penetration," Yang shot back.

"Weeeaaak!" Sun shouted from the stands.

"Students, behave!" Glinda shouted. "Three, two, one, begin!"

Cardin immediately threw himself at Yang, who appeared to be unarmed. Yang stood her ground, dropping slightly lower in her stance. She waited until the absolute last moment before her forearms melded into gold and stopped Cardin's mace swing dead. They were both shrouded in an explosion of flame on impact. A small "oooh" rose from the crowd. They burst out of it immediately, Cardin swinging at Yang's lower stance, who blocked each swing and slowly forced him backwards. The fight was very reminiscent of Yang's vs Ruby, although Cardin was definitely a slower but stronger opponent.

"Contain the fire!" Glinda's voice rang out. "Watch your partners!"

Meanwhile, Russel was standing up against Blake. Both seemed unaccustomed to fighting a dual wielding opponent, Russel using a pair of twin curved daggers to match Blake's katana and bladed sheath. Their fight was extremely difficult to follow because of their semblances. Blake generated clones of herself to block most hits and cause chaos, while Russel created sparks on hit that flashed blinding white. He seemed to be getting the worst of it, but it was difficult to tell. Then Cardin broke away from Yang, swinging his mace at Blake's back.

Yang reacted instantly, dropping into a lunge and striking forward with her palm. A torrent of flame blasted the other three into the arena wall, but it was only an illusion of Blake. The real one ducked it with a roll.

"A bold move from Cardin!" Glinda shouted. "But outdone by superb coordination!"

Cardin stepped in front of his teammate, deflecting the blast of flame and slowly walking forward. Yang released it suddenly, pitching him forward, and sweeping forward to break his stance with one leg. Blake was holding onto her katana's ribbon, swinging the sword in a wide arc, and smashed Cardin into the floor with it. Russel tried to intercept but Yang moved forward, crouching, blocked both hits, leaving his core wide open for her to punch him six feet into the air. She jumped to follow him, twisting in midair, and delivered one final punch from above, blasting him into where Cardin was just getting up off the floor. Russel's aura was knocked down from 73% to 8% by the two hits, Cardin's already weakened state dropping to 26%. Yang punched the air victoriously.

"Match! Russel's aura is too low to continue fighting, Yang finishing in style. Clearly, these two girls have been practicing together well. Can anyone tell me exactly why this fight became one-sided like that? ... Just yell it."

"Yang knows Blake is a strong enough fighter that she doesn't have to worry about her fighting Russel," Pyrrha shouted out, lowering her hand. "Further, Blake knows Yang's abilities and can read her movements well. She was exactly able to predict where Yang would strike with her semblance."

"'Semblance'," Ruby muttered to Weiss, waggling her fingers.

"Exactly!" Glinda said. "There's a lot we can all learn from this fight. Next pairs, Sun Wukong and Neptune Vasilias versus... Pyrrha Nikos and Jaune Arc!"

Weiss' eyes widened.

"See something you like?" Ruby teased.

"Shut up, dolt," Weiss said.

Jaune did not look comfortable, walking into the arena. He had a sword and shield, but didn't look like he really knew how to even hold them. Neptune and Sun looked confident, swaggering onto stage, chattering and bumping fists. Pyrrha though...

Pyrrha was at home. She did not dramatize or outwardly show off movements, but her slow and perfectly steady pace gave off an air of competence that was utterly cool and confident. Her sword and shield rolled onto her hands with the smoothness to match.

"Are you ready?" Glinda shouted.

Jaune nodded faintly. Sun and Neptune gave each other another fist bump, extending their weapons: a bamboo staff and an electrified spear, respectively. Pyrrha simply shifted into a fighting stance.

"Three, two, one, begin!"

The dynamic of the match was instantly evident. Jaune was not a fighter. All he could do was try to block with his shield while Pyrrha effectively fought one versus two.

The thing was, Pyrrha _effectively_ fought one versus two. Even though Weiss had rarely seen top tier combat like in the famous Vale Vytal festival tournament (of which Pyrrha was the reigning champion four years running), she instantly realized that Pyrrha had earned her spot on a box of cereal through more than just looks. The girl twisted and spun, blocking hit after hit from opposite sides while trading blows. Jaune did his best, he really did. But he got in the way more than anything else.

"Jaune!" Neptune shouted. They switched targets. No longer attacking Pyrrha, they chased the blond around the arena as he desperately tried to fend them off.

"Good! Find your enemy's weakness and make it your strength!"

That left Pyrrha clean to attack them, however. Throwing her shield, it deflected off Neptune's head to be blocked by Sun's staff. It snapped back to her wrist. Pyrrha shield bashed Neptune several feet through the air and Jaune managed to hit him with his own shield as he flew. The fight split suddenly. Jaune desperately trying to fight back Neptune as Pyrrha beat on Sun. But Jaune's aura was in the low twenties.

"Your teammate's back is as important as your own!"

Blake and Yang had sat down next to them, and it seemed as if all four of them were on the edges of their seats.

And Neptune swung for the finishing blow, Jaune having been spun around to face away from him. It was subtle, but Weiss caught it. Pyrrha lifted her right wrist, as if a gesture. And Jaune's shield lifted slightly to block the hit as Pyrrha smashed Sun into the floor.

"Match! Sun's aura has been depleted! A superb showing from Pyrrha Nikos!"

Ruby and Yang cheered and hi-fived. Blake and Weiss were less ecstatic.

"Can anyone tell me how Pyrrha and Jaune won the fight?" Glinda called out.

"You mean, how Pyrrha won the fight," Weiss muttered.

"Jaune's had no training in fighting," Ruby said. "He did exactly what he needed to."

"What, not get knocked out immediately?"

"Exactly."

"Anyone?" Glinda's voice was slightly impatient.

"Pyrrha separated them and kicked butt! Go teaaam JNPR!" Nora cheered.

"Accurate, but even though I admire your team spirit, please remember that this is a classroom. This was a case of knowing your partner's strength. Pyrrha was able to force Sun away from Jaune, knowing that she could defeat him in time to save her largely untrained partner. However, the difference in fighting ability for this fight was much more pronounced than last one. Pyrrha and Sun, you would both do well to take additional practice time to help your partners improve as fast as possible. Even a scientist here must be able to defend themselves if need be!"

The next match pitted Sage and Scarlet (the other two teammates of Sun and Neptune) versus Cardin and Russel's teammates, Dove Bronzewing and Sky Lark. They traded evenly, although in the end Scarlet was aura'd out by a skillful combination attack from Dove and Lark. The final match was perhaps the most intense of the day, a fierce back and forth between Ruby and Weiss and Nora and Ren. Ruby and Weiss took the early advantage but Ruby's scythe was simply not a good weapon match-up versus Nora's hammer, which had more power at the same range, and Ren was just too good at closing distance despite Weiss' glyphs. They managed to force Ruby and Weiss apart and Weiss got hit by a full strength swing from Nora's hammer and was sent flying into the wall on the opposite side of the arena. Ruby caught her as she fell but her aura was already at 3%. Nora apologized profusely for almost misjudging Weiss' aura level.

"I definitely know which of our morning classes I liked better," Yang said over lunch.

"I know, right?" Nora enthused. "You and Blake were amazing! Me and Ren have been together for sooo long and we're still not that good at coordination. Well, not together, together. Hehe." She turned her attention to the giant pile of food in front of her.

"This afternoons going to be so awesome though!" Ruby said. "We get to do 1v1s and there's a ranking system and everything!"

"Ruby just wants validation that she's the best," Yang explained. "Which will never come, because I am."

Pyrrha quirked her mouth at that one. "You are? Then what happened yesterday at the gym?"

"I had a lot on my mind, okay?" Yang grumbled. "We'll see this afternoon."

"Anyone know who our prof is this afternoon?" Weiss asked.

Jaune's eyes lit up. "Professor Peach. She's supposed to be really good. Or, at least more interesting than Port."

"Let us hope," Ren said.

* * *

"Well hello boys and girls! I imagine you're here because you're all very skilled fighters. Well I have news for you. Your journey through this school will take you to places more dangerous than you've ever seen! _SCHLURP_ You will face hordes of Grimm bigger than you've ever imagined in caves far beyond the city walls! You will take down Great Nevermores and alpha beowolves! And maybe if you're lucky, you will survive until second year! _SCHLURP_ With that in mind, let's get to it, shall we?"

"This guy's got MDMA in his coffee cup or something," Yang muttered to Ruby.

"My name is Doctor Bartholomew Oobleck and I am your professor for the next two semesters, or eight months. Listen to everything I say and you will be well on your way into becoming a great hunter or huntress instead of well on your way to a Grimm's belly. _SCHLURP_ I understand it is customary for the first class to be a sort of course overview in most schools. So let us proceed to Beacon Cliff for our overview!"

"Beacon Cliff? Why does the school have a designated cliff?" Ruby asked as they walked out of the lecture hall. "Isn't that a bit like 'Beacon Arboretum' or 'Beacon Corn Maze'?"

"Heh, Beacon Maize," Yang grinned.

"Right! _SCHLURP_ Everyone please stand on a marker and assume your fighting stance."

Everyone lined up on the eight square stone tiles a few meters back from the cliff. Ozpin stood in front of them, at the edge. It was quite the view, actually, overlooking Beacon's famed Forest of Forever Fall, named for the unusual yellow and red color of the leaves that grew there. Oobleck produced what looked like a thick pen, or maybe a roundish cigarette lighter, from his pocket.

"Good news everyone! My course does not involve any big textbooks, unlike our esteemed colleagues'. _SCHLURP_ In fact, everything you need to know from the first day onwards can be read or checked out from the Beacon Library. You will find it all on the course pack. Unfortunately, the courier got lost somewhere in there-" he waved his hand towards the forest- "and therefore you must find it yourselves. You will work in partners. The first person with whom you make eye contact upon entering the forest will be your partner for any partner-related activities in my class this semester. _SCHLURP_ The only exception is that you may not partner with a teammate. Best of luck! I will wait for your return."

"Wait hang on just a minute ..." Sun's voice had time to make out before Oobleck flipped the cap on the pen-like-object to reveal a red button, and then pressed it.

* * *

"Do you know why exactly we are meeting in the Beacon Arboretum instead of a lecture hall?" Weiss asked grumpily.

"It's not my fault you're bad at stopping to smell the roses," Blake said.

"That was actually mildly impressive," Weiss said, turning forwards to where a woman had entered from the front of the room. She was definitely the oldest-looking professor Weiss had encountered yet at Beacon, probably sixty or older, and seemed pleasant enough.

"Good afternoon, students. I am Professor Peach. Welcome to the _important_ division of Beacon Academy."

"Oh boy," Weiss muttered under her breath. Blake affirmed with a tilt of her head.

"While your comrades are out learning how to bash things' heads in, here, we are learning everything we can about what really makes up the Grimm. We live in a time of peace. The Grimm have all but ceased attacks on human cities, and have seemingly decreased in number dramatically everywhere except for a select few hotspots. In the past one hundred years, settlements have sprung up across the continents in areas where previously nobody would dare to go, but have been completely safe. Many believe that the Grimm have been beaten, that their recession from the world is permanent and will continue. But here at Beacon, what we have learned from our scientists has caused us to believe otherwise. In this course, we will be covering functionally everything that we know about Grimm from a biological and existential standpoint. In your future years here at Beacon, you will be developing your own research about the monsters that continue to exist in our world, be them Grimm or otherwise."

There was a small smattering of chatter at that one. Weiss involuntarily got a picture of a gold-plated Yang in her head.

"So let us get started. The cliff should be free by now. Follow me, if you please."

The cliff was a magnificent sight. The red and gold foliage of the Forest of Forever Fall spread across a valley formed by twin ranges of mountains from the side of the crescent-shaped high ground Beacon stood on. Beyond it lay the ocean, with one river entering the forest in the middle, its path visible through a distinct break in the treeline. It passed through the entire forest, draining into some mountain basin a few kilometers to the right of the Cliff. On the Cliff itself lay a set of standing stones, presumably some ritualistic device. They were square and stood, eight in a row, facing into the forest. A very tall man with a tall mug and green hair stood at the precipice, as if contemplative. He did not acknowledge their presence.

"This, as I'm sure you're aware, is the Forest of Forever Fall. And it contains a Grimm hotspot. Not a particularly large one, or one as dangerous as there are elsewhere. But I can assure you that unless you had a childhood that is unusual even for a Beacon student, you have never seen as many Grimm as there are within approximately one square kilometer of the heart of this forest. This is rather convenient, as, with only a few exceptions, the time you spend working with Grimm will be almost entirely in specific sections of this forest for your first two years here. Now, as I am sure you are all eager to get started, I would like to introduce you to Doctor Oobleck."

The green-haired man spun around, and said, extremely fast, "Hello, boys and girls! _SCHLURP_ "

"Doctor Oobleck will be accompanying us for our first expedition into this forest, where hopefully we will learn something about the Grimm today, and perhaps more importantly, a little something about ourselves. And so, let us begin!"

The eight students followed the pair of professors to a set of steps concealed on the side of the cliff and slowly made their descent into the Forest.


	4. Chapter 4

**Arbor II**

Flying was so much less fun when you couldn't use your wings.

Still though, Yang could ride the air pretty far and pretty fast just by blasting streams of fire behind her. Oobleck had kindly set up the launch pads to fire everyone in different directions and different speeds, and she'd had one of the shortest trajectories. But that was fine, she would still go a lot further than most since few of the others had ways to control their trajectories midair with any great effect. She pulled a pair of aviator sunglasses out of the pocket of her leather jacket and flipped them on to look around.

Unfortunately, Pyrrha was way far ahead of her. She could see a few of the likely partnerships falling from the sky. Ruby was flying in the same general direction as Nora, Sage and Dove were basically already flying together, and Sun was likely going to be partnered with a smallish Nevermore.

He didn't really stand a chance. Able to control his flight with nothing more than a bamboo pole and some arm-flapping, he couldn't do anything but fall at the giant Grimm, which turned from its nest to look up at him. Yang glanced once more at Pyrrha, flying off into the distance.

"Oh for the luva ..."

Yang punched the air viciously and pelted after Sun.

Still. Could be worse.

* * *

Ruby's crash-landing was almost elegant. Slowing herself down with the recoil from her sniper rifle, she caught the edge of her scythe on a thick tree branch with its cutting edge concealed and flipped around it twice before landing in a diveroll.

"Gotta find Nora, gotta find Nora." How did a girl that exuberant manage to be so stealthy? Ruby couldn't detect a trace of her and she'd seen the girl crash-land pretty close to her. She ticked off a list in her head.

"Okay, if not Nora, who else? Pyrrha's a better fighter, but Oobleck basically blasted her into the ocean. Sage seemed nice, but he never says anything. That leaves Sun, who might be eaten by that Nevermore, and ..." She blasted through a bush into a small clearing and looked up straight into the eyes of Cardin Winchester.

And a giant pack of beowolves.

* * *

Sun was about one second from falling into the Nevermore's jaws when Yang body slammed its head from the side. The thirty foot long bird toppled over, its head smashing into the ground through a couple of trees. Sun slid down its neck on his staff like a snowboard as it fell, executing a flip onto a tree branch off the "jump" formed by its collarbone. The bird slashed its tail at the tree, toppling it, and jumped for Sun again.

"Come here, little birdie!" Yang taunted, throwing herself at it. The bird smacked her to the side with its tail as it flew, but it was knocked off balance enough for Sun to dodge it. Yang fell to the ground and punched fireballs. They struck along the Nevermore's body, splashing along its armored hide. She shot blasts of flame at its wings, but those only mildly upset its flight.

"I could use some help here!" Sun yelled from a tree somewhere out of sight, gunshots echoing.

"Come on, fight me!" Yang screamed, throwing herself once more. She landed on its neck as it turned to chase Sun again, and it immediately bucked midair to try to throw her off. Yang held on, and flipped into the air in front of it, catching its jaw with her hands. She slung it into the ground, sending herself flying a hundred feet into the air. Sun, seeing his chance, jumped at it as it impacted the ground, breaking apart the exoskeleton-like structure protecting the base of its neck before jumping back. Yang fell in a torpedo of flame, her fist impacting the Nevermore in the same place. A shockwave swayed nearby trees as the Nevermore exploded into black dust and slowly sublimated into the air.

Yang and Sun looked at each other awkwardly.

"Sunny out today, isn't it?"

* * *

"Great, leave it to my luck to get partnered with animal," Cardin sneered.

"As much as I'd like to pound you into the dirt for that, we've got bigger problems," Ruby said.

Cardin turned halfway to the pack of beowolves, swinging his mace onto his shoulder before abruptly leaping forwards at them. He took out two with a single swing of his mace, the first one exploding as it passed through the beowolf's head. Ruby surged forwards in a flurry of rose petals to join him. It was a massacre. The pack was easily twenty strong, charging from all sides, but Ruby carved through it with Cardin smashing them left and right as he followed. They passed through a dense section of woods momentarily and then opened into another clearing, that just happened to have the pack's alpha in it. Where most beowolves stood six to nine feet tall, pack alphas could grow to massive heights, twenty feet or more, but preserved their agility and relative strength.

"Wonderful," Ruby muttered.

The alpha roared its challenge, and as was his wont, Cardin threw himself at it.

The wolf swung down with one clawed hand and smashed Cardin downwards, but he caught it with his mace and landed on his feet. Ruby dashed forward to slash her scythe at one of its legs but only managed to scratch the tough hide. It was still enough to distract the alpha's attention. It turned to her and snapped its head down to grab her with its teeth but Cardin hit it in the side of the head with his mace. An explosion of flame augmented the impact. The alpha spun around but with its back claw it slashed at Cardin, slicing through his shirt and leaving a red bloody mark on his chest. Ruby caught the foot with her scythe but instead of pulling the beowolf over like she'd planned, the wolf jerked her off her feet. Cardin grabbed her ankle midair and yanked backwards. Ruby felt like she was being split in two but she held onto her scythe. The wolf, pushing itself backwards to try to maintain its balance, fell heavily on its back. Ruby caught its neck from beneath with her scythe and pulled upwards as Cardin smashed its head into the ground with his mace, severing it.

Ruby sat back, gasping and holding her sides. Hopefully that one didn't leave stretch marks.

"Get up," Cardin said. "We've got a mission to do. I thought dogs were supposed to be stronger than that."

"So much for bonding through trauma," Ruby muttered. "What an asshole."

* * *

"So I was wondering who I was going to get for a partner here. You know, I usually always stick with the same guy, Ren, we work really well together. But of course when we wanted to go here you have to pick one guy to be a scientist in order to be partners so he did that because I'm a lot better at hitting things with my hammer than thinking about hitting them with my hammer and he's basically the perfect student. So I was thinking about people and obviously Yang and Pyrrha are like the best ever but Ruby's really nice and she seems to have a really good handle on things, you know? Honestly I don't know that much about you per se and you're always hanging out with that Cardin guy which kinda makes sense given you're teammates and all but he's kind a jerk to some people, no offense to you since you guys are friends. But you're actually a great listener, which I just love in people. There's nothing like someone who ..."

Dove pretty much tuned the redhead out. Since apparently he wasn't going to get a word in, might as well concentrate on finding his course pack.

Still. Could be worse.

* * *

"Oh hello! Nice to really meet you Sage."

"Likewise, Pyrrha."

...

"So, do you have any ideas about what we're looking for? I was thinking that temple in the middle of this quadrant."

"Sounds good."

...

"Nice day to be outside, isn't it?"

"Quite."

...

* * *

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to your first expedition into the Forbidden Forest!" Peach said from the front of the group. "The Forest is broken into five sections, four quadrants numbered clockwise from the cliff and the Core. We will be staying in quadrant 1 for most of this class. It has the lowest Grimm activity out of any area in here. Quadrant 3 has the most Grimm out of the quadrants, it is on the far side of the forest. The famous Temple of Quetzalcoatlus is in quadrant 2, just west of here. The most dangerous part of the forest is the Core. Not visible from above the treeline, there's an underground volcano in the center of this forest that is a major Grimm hotspot and the source of all Grimm in this forest. Stay away from it unless in the direst of circumstances."

The forest was brightly colored from above but the dense foliage cut out most of the light of day, leaving the forest in perpetual twilight. Jaune clearly not at ease, looking at every shadow. His hand never left the pommel of his sword. Scarlet was also jumpy, despite Neptune's attempts to keep him in line. Even Weiss was a little spooked.

To Blake though, it was almost funny. How romantic, a forest of perpetual twilight in the fall, which just happened to be filled with monsters that want to eat you. She'd had about as much experience with Grimm as anyone who didn't go to an academy like Beacon could ever have. This section of the forest was dense by normal standards but was still not dangerous to a group of this size with two fully trained hunters, even if one of them was an older person. Blake was confident in her ability to defend herself and Weiss definitely seemed competent enough, if not confident enough.

"Today's topic: identifying Grimm! As you can see over here, this is a pattern left by a beowolf traveling through the density of the forest. You can see the way that the plants' stalks are bent sideways at these specific levels marking the external structure of a beowolf. As I'm sure all of you are aware, Grimm have no discernible interior organs, rather a large sac of solid material that defines their shape. This beowolf is approximately four feet in height when walking on four legs, which means it's roughly eight feet long. We can follow this trail to get a closer look at it, shall we?"

Jaune gulped as the group followed the trail to a probable Grimm nest.

Still.

Could be worse.

* * *

"I am really beginning to question his teaching methods!" Sun screamed as the pack of ursai drove them back to what appeared to be a thirty foot wide moat of lava surrounding the Temple of Quetzalcoatlus. Conveniently, it had a sign next to it, saying cheerfully: "Course packs ahead! Enjoy your first day!"

"Oh really?" Yang shouted back, firing fireballs into the veritable sea of Grimm to try and keep them back. "Did you start that before or after he potted you down a Nevermore's gullet?"

An ursa suddenly knocked a giant swath through the pack, knocking over its comrades before falling into the lava. A trail of rose petals blasted through the abrupt opening before materializing into a gasping Ruby and a rather displeased Cardin, knocked apart and tumbling head over head several times before coming to a rest close to the lip of the moat.

"That," Cardin spat, "was not the plan!"

"The plan changed slightly when we ran into _that_!" Ruby gestured vigorously at the pack.

"You did _not_ have to use my head to punt a seven hundred pound ursa fifty feet!"

"Why not? Your skull is certainly thick enough!"

"Oh shee-it," Sun said, awed. "What a comeback."

"Yang? Yang! What are we gonna do?" Ruby shouted.

"We've got to cross into the temple somehow," Yang said. "Our objective is right here, and we can't fight that." She emphasized her point by splashing more fireballs across ursa hides.

"Then fly us across!"

" _Ruby_!"

A grenade shot out of nowhere from the temple, blasting a hole in the Grimm pack, accompanied by a shout of "Got em!"

"Guys!" Pyrrha shouted from inside the temple. "There's a bridge on the other side!"

"Perfect!" Yang shouted.

"Only thing is, it's on fire!"

"You can not be serious," Sun moaned, holding his head in his hands.

Then the ursai charged.

The four of them ran along the edge of the moat. It was broken in a couple of places to allow lava to continue to flow past it from the center of the forest out to the mountains. Sun and Cardin jumped over them, Ruby cleared them with bursts from her semblance, and Yang rode a torrent of flame like a jetpack in her boots. The ursai kept chasing but were stalled temporarily at each break. It took about thirty seconds to reach the wooden bridge, which was well and truly on fire. Ruby dashed across it first but Cardin's weight seemed to bring it to the point of no return. Sun and Yang got caught halfway when the bridge collapsed. Midair, Yang wrapped Sun in her jacket and threw him bodily twenty feet onto the ledge before falling into the lava.

"YANG!" Pyrrha and Nora screamed. The others just stared, slack-jawed, at the slowly bubbling pool.

Yang's head popped up, lava sliding through her hair. "I don't suppose anyone brought a spare set of clothes?"

Ruby caught Nora as she fell.

* * *

"It's injured," Weiss said.

"Good observation." Peach's voice was much more subdued now. "You can see its stride is uneven. Can anyone tell me where it's hurt from this angle?"

"Right forearm?" Blake suggested.

"And how about _how_ it got injured?"

Nobody said anything. Then Ren spoke: "That's not a wound, it's diseased."

Peach's eyebrows shot up. Most of the group turned to look at him.

"An astute observation, Ren," Peach said. "You can see from its pattern of movement. Its leg is not torn or dislocated as one might expect from a traumatic injury. It's stiffened. Nearly immobile from the shoulder joint down. Because they are physiologically so different, the disease is not capable of interacting at all with anything that isn't Grimm, but is contagious within them and applies a tetanus effect, slowly increasing in strength until it kills over the course of a few days. Normally we wouldn't introduce you students to this sort of thing for a while yet but this one was conveniently here and it will likely die within two or three days. Let's look at it." She walked forward, quietly and quickly. Blake and Weiss looked at each other before following closely. The other students seemed a little less eager, but followed a little distance behind with Oobleck bringing up the rear.

"It's not dangerous," Peach said, drawing up next to it. The beowolf snarled at her but didn't try to attack or even move. Its leg was stuck, in a normal position but immobile. "You can see here what I'm talking about. It already has traces of the tetanus in its other paw. Look at how its hind paws are flexible and relaxed into the uneven ground, but both of its front paws have the same odd spasm."

"Do Grimm even have physiology?" Weiss said. "How is it possible that they can get sick?"

"That's the question," Peach answered. "Here at Beacon, we've been studying the Grimm since the Great Recession about two hundred years ago. In all that time we've encountered nothing to indicate that this was even possible, until Beacon's very own Doctor Oobleck found a sick one six years ago."

Oobleck took a dramatic _SCHLURP_.

"This definitely had nothing to do with the Recession. Certainly in that time there was nothing to indicate anything other than Grimm simply disappearing, or rather, the rate at which they spawn into our world going down. But more on that later. Would anyone like to examine this beast before we kill it?"

Ren and Weiss stepped forward and approached it.

"It won't attack you. The sick ones, even in the early stages, just seem to stop caring."

Ren grasped its frozen leg with one hand and tried to move it. "Feels like a rigor mortis."

"An odd description, but accurate. That's why we refer to it as tetanus even though Grimm don't have muscles."

Ren produced a green hand scythe from his sleeve and positioned it above the leg. "Weiss, give me a hand here?"

"You're just going to cut it like that? When it's still alive?" Jaune gasped out.

"Of course," Peach said. "Grimm don't last long when they die. You have to conduct experiments on living ones."

"What if you don't like dissecting living things, even if they are Grimm?" Neptune's voice came out weakly.

"Then don't specialize in Grimm biology. I sure as hell didn't."

* * *

"Ugh, this is going to take forever to wash out," Yang moaned, trying to shake ash from her hair, as the disheveled and exhausted group climbed the steps leading up Beacon Cliff.

"I've had some sadistic teachers in my time," Pyrrha said. "But Oobleck is something else." The group grumbled their agreement.

The 'course pack', of course, had turned out to be literally a couple of sheets of paper stapled together with a list of resources and a class schedule for the semester. Upon seeing it, Cardin had explained in explicit detail exactly what his plans were for Oobleck and his copy of the course pack. Nobody disagreed.

Fortunately, they'd at least been provided with some materials to get out. Unfortunately, those materials summed to two metal poles and a length of rope. After having woven some leaves into something that gave Yang a slight semblance of modesty, Pyrrha managed somehow to lasso an overhanging tree branch with the rope. After some hair-raising Tarzan swings and a long battle of eight fighter students versus the huge pack of ursai, they'd made it out of Quadrant 2 without further incident apart from the odd beowolf encounter. The sun was almost setting by the time they made it to the top of the Cliff to find Oobleck sitting on a folding chair, staring out over the forest with his perpetual mug. He sprang up as they approached.

"Ah, you're back! Excellent! _SCHLURP_ You may consider that your first real test at this school. In life, tests come quickly and without warning. But in this class, all the tests are marked on your schedule. Any questions?"

"Yeah, um," Cardin said. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

Oobleck pushed his glasses further down on his nose and peered over them at Cardin. "Every scar you got today is one you don't get on the field where nobody can help you. Experience is the best teacher and if you graduate from Beacon you are going to get a lot of it. Tomorrow we are sparring. You are dismissed."

Nobody had the energy to fight it.

"Yang?" Sun fell into step beside her as the group dispersed. "I never really got a chance to properly thank you for saving me. Twice."

"Huh?"

"I don't really have any kind of experience with Grimm that big and, well, falling into a Nevermore's open mouth, I thought I was pretty much a goner. And then you 100% bailed me out on that bridge." He gave a small chuckle.

"You can thank me by not hurting Blake," Yang said shortly.

"What?" Sun stopped and stared at her back as she walked away. Her forearms glinted with gold.

The door to the mess hall opened and Yang and Ruby walked in, followed closely by the other six fighters. Not one of them seemed to have escaped the day unscathed. Yang's hair was filled with ash and she didn't seem to be wearing anything other than her leather jacket and a grass skirt. Ruby was limping and holding her upper body stiffly, Pyrrha had a line of bruising from shoulder to elbow of her left arm. Cardin's chest had been slashed by _something_ , his shirt was ripped to shreds and the front was caked in dried blood as well as bruising apparent on his forehead. Nora had a slash across her cheek and several more on her legs. The bracer on Sun's right wrist was cracked and he had slashes on either side of it. Dove had a cracked lip and his nose was at an odd angle. Sage's pants were torn on one leg and blooded. A silence fell over the tables where the first-years sat. Most of the older students didn't bother to look.

"Well that certainly puts some things in perspective," Blake said softly.

"Can you please stop doing that?" Weiss rubbed her left eye.

Ruby, Yang, Nora, Pyrrha, and Sun joined them. Sage sat with Scarlet and the other team had their own table a little ways off.

"So would you guys care to explain what the hell happened to you this afternoon?" Jaune said.

"We took a small voyage to the Forest of Forever Fall," Yang said wearily and started devouring her stew.

"We did too," Neptune said. "And, well..."

"Oobleck was kind enough to give us an airlift to the Q2," Sun said.

"We stopped at a petting zoo along the way," Yang deadpanned. Pyrrha started giggling slightly.

"Cool museum though," Nora said. "Gave out pamphlets and everything." Sun snorted into his drink.

"Songbirds were out today," he managed.

Ruby had tears in her eyes as she struggled out "T-too bad Yang forgot her s-swimsuit."

None of them were capable of speech for a good minute.

* * *

"You should come up with a team name for yourselves," Ruby said to Sun as the eight of them sat in the common room for their floor. Sun and Neptune had came upstairs to join them. Ren, Blake, and Weiss were reading books, Nora was polishing her hammer and checking it for damage, and Ruby, Sun, and Yang were losing horribly to Neptune at Mario Kart.

"Team name? Like what, Team Awesome?" Sun and Neptune fist bumped, causing both of them to fall off the Rainbow Road.

"No," Ruby said. "Our team is Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang. So you take R, W, B, Y and get 'Ruby'. They're J, N, P, R, which gives 'Juniper'."

"Well," Neptune said. "We've got N, S, S, and S! Team Niiiiice!"

"That's dumb," Sun said. "How about team 'Sun'? S, S, S, N!"

"Even worse. What about the others?" Neptune asked. "R, S, C, D."

"Doesn't Lark go by his last name?" Yang asked.

"Dunno," Neptune said. "He's not very talkative."

"If you use C, R, D, L, you can get 'Cardinal'," Ruby said. "Which is funny because their names are all birds as well."

"You guys are so good at this," Weiss said. "Four teams, and three of their names are literally just a member of the team."

"Hey! Quit it in the peanut gallery!" Sun said.

"Too bad Jaune isn't here to appreciate his success," Ruby said. "Where is he, anyway?"

"He's off with Pyrrha training," Yang said. "I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be down for that after today."

"That's some serious dedication from Jaune's part, too," Ruby said. "I know you guys weren't exactly swimming in Grimm but you had a long day too. No, blue shell! Noooooo!"

"Sorry, sweetheart," Neptune said, grinning, as he blasted past her two seconds before the finish line.


	5. Chapter 5

**Intermezzo**

"The rules are as usual. Elimination is either by ring out or depleting your opponent's aura to below 10%. The first match of the day is ..."

He dramatically drew two slips of paper out of his hand. "Pyrrha Nikos versus Yang Xiao Long!"

"Well, you finally got yourself your rematch," Pyrrha smiled as they squared off against each other.

"No boxing gloves this time," Yang said, assuming her fighting stance.

"Three, two, one, begin!"

They moved together slightly but still maintained a few feet in between, circling sideways. Pyrrha twirled her sword. The audience seemed to be holding its collective breath.

Pyrrha attacked first, fast as lightning. She stepped forward and slashed twice at Yang. Yang blocked both hits with dull _ting_ s off her gold forearms. Pyrrha stepped back, maintaining their dance. She tilted her head to the side slightly.

Yang lunged close, punching at her side. Pyrrha blocked with her shield, stabbing forward. Yang deflected her sword and stepped her left foot just inside of Pyrrha's right. Pyrrha slashed at Yang from the side but Yang struck her under her chin and slammed her shield into her. She blocked the inward movement of Pyrrha's left foot, breaking her stance. Pyrrha slid backwards to the side. Yang hit her hard as she started to fall, but Pyrrha caught herself and slid most of the way across the arena on two feet and one hand before coming to a rest. She straightened up, a look of confusion on her face. Her aura was already at 73%, compared to Yang, who hadn't taken a hit yet.

They were back, dancing the circle. Yang took a lower stance and again went on the aggressive, throwing three fast punches. Pyrrha blocked the first with her shield, sending a vibration through it, deflected the second with her sword, and slammed the third to the side with her shield. She slashed down and shield bashed Yang backwards and off balance. She struck hard with her sword and Yang was not able to deflect it in time, slammed hard into the floor. She instantly kicked sideways to break Pyrrha's stance again but Pyrrha stepped forward, stopping her kick dead. Yang sprang up with the rebound but Pyrrha caught Yang's arm with both hands, attempting to twist it into an armlock. Yang broke it by slamming her elbow in with her other hand and knocked her back. Pyrrha spread her arms. Her sword and shield went flying back into her hands but Yang got there first, her entire body rotating as she threw a punch to the jaw. Pyrrha swiped her right hand to the left, palm forward. And then Yang's fist connected to its target. Pyrrha flew fifteen feet into the wall of the arena.

"Match!" Oobleck shouted. "Impressive!"

Yang held her hand out to Pyrrha, who was still sitting against the wall of the arena rubbing her jaw.

"Touché, untouchable one." Yang gave her a saucy smile.

"Congratulations on _almost_ reaching #1," Pyrrha grinned at her, and took her hand.

After the first day, things at Beacon had settled into a sort of rhythm. In the mornings, they first had basic Grimm studies classes. There, Professor Port taught them an overview, such as distribution patterns, fighting styles, sizing, weaknesses, and other general information. Blake had taken to sitting with Sun. Yang started sitting at a table with Pyrrha and Jaune.

Next they had partners' combat. Glinda pitted them all against each other in the arena, shouting commands and critiquing. Yang and Blake quickly established themselves as the pair to beat. Ruby and Weiss were a strong pair, but Ruby's relative inexperience combined with Weiss' general lack of strength in an arena setting with very little room for dust magic always allowed their teammates to get the better of them. Nora and Ren were also very strong fighters but Nora tended to either knock someone out of the ring or do nothing at all and Blake's clones made it very difficult for Nora to fight.

Jaune was definitely improving. It had only been a week and a half but something about Pyrrha's training was sinking in. He no longer looked quite so lost in the arena and was at least more able to not get knocked out immediately. That being said, he was still definitely one of the weaker fighters, which left Pyrrha's main show piece to be the afternoon.

True to his word, Oobleck had set up a rating system. After the first day, they went every day to an arena, smaller than Glinda's, but with a larger combat area. Often, he ran drills and partnered combat, but everyone's favorite time were the 1v1s. Up until her fight versus Yang on the second week, Pyrrha had been undefeated. She just seemed to be faster than everyone else. Pairing rapid slashes of her sword to powerful shield bashes and the occasional abandonment of her arms for hand-to-hand combat, her rapidly shifting style confused most and she seemed to have truly earned her nickname of "untouchable girl" from the Vytal tournament. After beating her, Yang was still not able to overtake her on the #1 place, courtesy of Nora's hammer.

Weiss and Blake quickly became close friends in Peach's class. Jaune and Ren seemed to partner off quite nicely and neither Weiss nor Blake particularly cared to get close to the other four. Here, they were taught similar to Port's class, but in much further detail. They learned specific patterns for tracking Grimm, basic Grimm biology, as well as a lot of general survival knowledge such as edible plants, or how to acquire clean water.

Both sets of students would typically head, exhausted, from class to the mess hall for dinner, and thereafter RWBY, Nora, Ren, Sun, and Neptune would retire to the upper floor common room. Blake, Weiss, and Ren preferred to read or study while the others lost horribly to Neptune at whatever game they were playing that day. Jaune and Pyrrha trained during this time for an hour or two every day. So it was a bit of a surprise when, after a few weeks, Jaune walked in early one night, explaining that he had the best board game ever made with him.

"See, it's called 'Age of Remnant'!" he said. "It's a strategy game where you play as one of the four kingdoms and try to become the strongest of them all!"

"So, some kind of strategy game?" Weiss popped her head up.

"Yeah, come on and play! I'll show you guys how," he said.

Weiss investigated her opponents: Jaune, Ruby, and Yang. Nora was losing horribly to Neptune at Super Smash Bros Melee. "Well, I guess it'll probably be pretty easy." She sat down on the floor in the circle while Jaune started setting up.

"Okay, so here's how this works," Jaune said. "You pick a kingdom and you get one of these boards for each one. You've got four spaces. Your land tiles go in here, these determine the kinds of resources you get. Your army units go in here, you spend resources to build your army. Your defenses and other buildings go in this spot, you build these with resources as well, and your resources go in the fourth. You get these victory points by winning battles against people or by maintaining the largest army or the largest most productive city. Got it?"

"Seems simple enough," Weiss said.

"So how does the combat work?" Yang asked.

"There's three divisions of troops," Jaune explained, "and each kingdom gets different ones. You get soldiers, which are low strength but easy to build; monsters, which are powerful and have special abilities; and hunters, which are less powerful but get attack bonus versus all monsters."

"Special abilities?" Weiss said.

"Yeah, like the Atlesian Dwarf. He's barely stronger than a soldier, but gets a huge bonus versus giant types and gets stronger the more of them there are in the battle. Vacuo's monsters revive each other and bring other troops in combat, like the Sphinx, which resurrects itself every time it gets killed but with lower strength until it reaches zero. Vale's monsters are hard to build, so you don't get many total, but they do massive damage. Like the Dragon, which is the only monster in the game to get a bonus versus hunters."

Yang, Weiss, and Ruby looked at each other. Weiss slowly reached for the Atlas board.

"Hey," Sun said. "So, you busy?"

Blake half-smirked at him. "Well, we've got a test tomorrow..."

"Well I hear there's this thing going on right now, a lunar eclipse. Want to go check it out?"

"I dunno," Blake said, tilting her head playfully. "There's always other ones."

"Come on," Sun said, grinning, and grabbed her arm. They swept past the board game, featuring two very confused fighters, a firmly concentrating Weiss, and Pyrrha leaning her chin on Jaune's shoulder to watch from his perspective.

"I found this thing," Sun said, lifting a metal panel. It was a large air chute that lead outside, to a large flat area on the roof of the building. Blake and him stepped onto the roof and leaned back against the slope.

The moon was huge, silver, and whole. Low in the horizon, it shone from across the vast ocean. Beacon was a little ways inland on the huge continent of Sanus, but there was a large, roughly triangular gulf that lead nearly up to the school. The school itself was situated on a large plateau several hundred feet tall. To the right, northeast of them, the plateau split and formed a large valley that held the Forest of Forever Fall. Beyond the Forest, the ocean curved around to meet the eastern ledge before the land curved back out. The eastern ledge was part of the great mountain range that separated the larger Valean metropolitan area from the wilderness, inhabited only by farmers and the occasional small village.

"This place has really got the best views," Sun said. Blake murmured her agreement, watching the moon slowly start to turn red.

"Yang Xiao Long, prepare your kingdom for battle!" Ruby crowed.

Yang, snapping out of her reverie, slammed her fist down next to her board. "Bring it on sis!" She snatched up her troop cards.

"I'll be pillaging your production. Soon all your Gold tiles will be mine! Behold my mighty army!" Ruby pushed forward a selection of her troops. Weiss rolled her eyes at their dramatizations.

The first cards were slammed on the table. Ruby had a Mummy with 5 attack power, but Yang, anticipating that, had played a Mistrali Minotaur, whose bonus versus undead gave it 9 total power. She was unlucky on the dice roll but still defeated it. Ruby already had a hunter, Osiris, in her army, and crushed Yang's replayed Minotaur on the next battle. Using its ability, she resurrected her Mummy. She replayed it, winning an upset battle to Yang's Cyclops, and allowing her to create a new Mummy and immediately add it to the battle. Yang used her other Minotaur on the next battle, but Ruby anticipated and destroyed it with her Phoenix, which gained a bonus versus walking troops. It wasn't long before Ruby's now-giant army of Mummies stood victorious.

"Your troops lie in shambles," Ruby said gleefully. "And now, mine advance on your hapless village!"

"Not so fast," Yang said. "You just activated my trap card. Giant nevermore!"

"What?" Ruby gasped.

"Giant feathers will rain down upon your troops. Either turn back now or, if I roll a 7 or higher, your army will be destroyed!"

"But, if you roll a 6 or lower, it'll turn on your own forces and destroy your army reserves!"

"That's just a chance I'm willing to take," Yang glared at her.

The moon was a blood red now. Its fracturing was well developed, cracks running through it. Unlike during its phasing, when it parts would break off from one side to the other before reforming in the same direction, it was splitting from the middle out.

"So there's this midterm tomorrow," Sun said.

"Ah yes, 'midterms'," Blake said. "Because apparently four weeks is midway through a 16-week term. Have you found anything out about what it is?"

"I've been asking around and all I've managed to get is something about a field trip," Sun said. "But it can't be too good because we've got no classes until next Monday and they're hosting a dance Sunday night. Which I was thinking we could go to together. What do you say?"

"I'll consider it," Blake arched her back and lay back against the roof with a small smirk.

The cracks reached the edges of the moon. Blake moved slightly closer to Sun as it reached its final point and shattered, pieces spreading slightly apart. A breath of air passed by, and then a snarl came from behind them.

Blake jumped up, Gambol Shroud already in her hand.

"A beowolf?" Sun gasped. "How did it even get up here?" He snapped out his staff and jumped at it. A few quick hits and the wolf was falling off the roof, sublimating midair.

"Does that ... usually happen during an eclipse?" Blake asked.

"No, I ... I've never seen that before. It just appeared!" Sun frowned.

"It probably just came from the other side," Blake said. "Climbed out of the Forest."

"Yeah, probably," Sun muttered. "Come on inside. Let's go join Sage and Scarlet in my room. We got drinks."

"Your kingdoms lie in shambles!" Jaune declared. "Vale stands victorious!"

"That's not fair," Weiss said. "It was our first time playing."

"You're just salty because Jaune beat you," Ruby grinned.

"What are you -" Weiss glared at her.

"Hey Yang?" Pyrrha asked off to the side. "Could I see your weapons?"

"Um, sure," Yang said. She held out her arms, gold forming on her forearms.

"How do you do that? Is it just part of your semblance?"

"Yeah," Yang said slowly.

"That's cool. They're not metal though, are they?"

"No. Hence the touché."

Pyrrha raised her eyebrows.

"I've seen it," Yang smirked. "You push people's weapons around."

Pyrrha's eyes glinted. "It seems we have some sparring to do."

Blake still got back later. Yang was lying on her bed, watching YouTube videos on her scroll, when Blake stumbled into the room. Yang looked up. She smelled like alcohol, and a faint trace of Sun's hands on her shoulders.

 _Good_ , she thought to herself. _Anything else he touches her with in this state, he loses_. Mentally noting to save that one for later, she jumped up and guided Blake to her bed.

"Blake, why were you drinking so much? You know we've got something important tomorrow afternoon."

Blake ignored her question, staring at her. "Your eyes'so pre-tty." Her head tilted to the side.

Yang started slightly. "Um, Blake? I'm going to get you some water, okay? You just get into bed."

Blake reached out to touch her upper arm. Yang quickly pulled herself away and walked out of the room. On the way to the kitchen, she looked at her reflection in the bathroom mirror.

Her eyes were violet, but with ruby lines radiating from the center like spokes on a wheel. They were already slowly fading. Yang groaned in frustration, rubbed her eyes to completely rid them of red, before getting the glass and placing it on Blake's bedside table. Blake was already asleep.

* * *

"Gods, why did I do that," Blake moaned, holding her head, as they lined up in front of the airship.

"I don't know," Yang said grimly. "You'd better hope it passes soon."

"Hunters and huntresses," Glinda announced. "Please enter the airship and sit next to your partner with your wrists crossed behind you. Your first midterm is about to begin."


	6. Chapter 6

**Demi I**

"You have 168 hours from this moment," Glinda said to where Blake and Yang were left seated, blindfolded and hands bound, on a grassy field. "Good luck."

As the mechanical whirring of the airship receded, Blake caught the ribbon of her katana with her teeth, unsheathing it. She flicked it around her to position over the rope binding her wrists, but she felt Yang's hands on hers and a subtle warmth, and the ropes came apart, crumbling ash onto the ground.

"Thanks," she said, slipping off her blindfold.

"I must confess," Yang said, "I think I'm going to enjoy this 'midterm' a lot more than that of other schools I've gone to."

Blake's mouth quirked slightly at the thought of Yang sitting in front of an exam paper, chewing on the back of her pencil.

"Still, she gave us a week to get back to the school. Most of the other groups only had a day or two."

"We're probably a lot further away than them," Blake said. "We were the last ones to get dropped off by an hour or so. I wonder why she did that."

"Duh, cuz we're the best," Yang said. "Whew, that's a view."

Blake took a look at her surroundings. They were on a large open field, illuminated by the on the top of a sort of escarpment. Behind them, a mountain range stood tall, reaching almost to the water on their left and curving around on their right. The wide indigo of the body of water stretched to the horizon and to either side as far as the eye could see, colored by the sun setting over it. Close to the coastline, she could make out several villages, with some denser forest further inland. Off in the distance, a mountain range stood roughly lined up with them.

"It's over there," Blake said, pointing at the range.

"You sure?" Yang's eyes widened. "We're going to have our work cut out for us to get there in a week."

"I'm sure. We're straight southeast from it. The sun's setting as well. We should get down from here and get into the forest, I don't particularly fancy feeding a family of Nevermores."

"Wouldn't mind being fed myself," Yang said. "I can catch us a deer or something."

"Sounds good," Blake said, looking over the cliff-like side of the escarpment. "We're going to have to go a little ways west to get down from this ..." She turned to see Yang, who was grinning like a loon, flanked by her massive golden wings.

"I haven't gotten to go for a spin since the third day," Yang said, scooping Blake up in her arms. Blake barely made out a "hey!" before Yang jumped off the side of the cliff.

Blake remembered their first flight. She'd been in shock from the day's events. But Yang had been slow, controlled, and powerful, and Blake had actually relaxed over the course of the flight back to the room. Not so this time. She estimated that the cliff was five hundred feet tall and Yang allowed them to fall three hundred of those feet before angling her wings to level out. Blake's scream turned into a giddy laugh as they shot forward at ridiculous speed over the tops of the trees, her arms loosening their stranglehold around Yang slightly. Yang angled upwards again, sending them flying into the sky, boosting them a little bit with a few powerful movements of her shoulders before peaking again. Blake laughed in exhilaration at the weightlessness as they leaned forward and flew towards the ground. Yang kept them close to the trees this time, with small but strong movements of her wings to preserve their speed. Blake pulled herself close again. After a few minutes, Yang seemed to find what she was looking for and tilted backwards. Their speed dropped off quickly and they dropped into a clearing, Yang landing lightly on her feet. She set Blake on her feet and then flopped heavily onto her back on the forest floor, breathing heavily. From this perspective, the sun had already set, leaving Yang's scales a smoky amethyst color.

"Okay," Blake said. "I admit it, that's pretty fun."

"Cliff good," Yang panted. "Cover fifth of distance. But wings not made ... for two people."

Blake left her there and started setting up camp. Fortunately, the forest was dry, and the wood from a downed tree nearby split easily to set up a firepit. She was more familiar with Mistrali plants, uncommon in the forests of Vale, but Peach's lessons served her faithfully and she found some root vegetables that probably weren't poisonous. She stripped the long leaves off one side of a large bush and laid them out on the ground, weaving back and forth into a protective cover from the rough, rocky dirt. Half a Mistrali nut, hacked in half and gutted, made for a large and fireproof pot.

Yang was already returning, dragging the body of a large deer behind her. Its throat was torn open.

Blake looked at Yang's smooth, clean hands, and a shiver went through her. "I don't suppose I want to know how you killed that?"

Yang laughed. "Well, princess, you'd better toss me Gambol then." She plucked the dagger out of the air and cleanly carved the carcass, slicing away strips of meat like an expert butcher. "What have you got for us?"

"If you'd care to light the fire we can make a decent stew, I've got some vegetables."

"Righto," Yang said. "I put us down close to a stream." She flicked a small ball of flame at Blake's campfire, igniting it immediately. She was gone maybe thirty seconds with the pot, then they boiled water, put the assorted ingredients in, and sat back to wait.

"Won't be pretty, but it should do the trick," Blake said. "Maybe we can find a nice village to save from some Grimm so they give us food. Unless you managed to sneak some money here."

"Nope," Yang said. "Glinda patted me down good. Real good." She crossed her arms in front of her ample chest. Blake giggled.

After eating, a messy affair due to the lack of cutlery or dishes, Yang disposed of the remainder of the deer and Blake threw the nut shell into the river. They lay down on Blake's leaf covering.

"Gotta get some sleep," Yang yawned. "We should be moving as soon as possible tomorrow morning. Maybe we'll even find something to eat."

"I don't suppose we can keep that fire on?" Blake muttered, shivering with her arms wrapped around her. This part of Sanus got cold, come late September.

"It'll attract any Grimm that come wandering by at night," Yang said. "Unless you want night watch, it's gotta go."

Blake sighed. "You do it, I'm not getting up."

Yang sat up and stared at the flames. She breathed deeply in, and then closed her eyes as she breathed out, slowly moving her fists to touch knuckles. The campfire slowly shrank as she breathed, leaving not an ember at the end.

"I'm not even surprised anymore," Blake said.

Yang's playful smile glowed lilac and crimson in the darkness.

 _Damn_ but it was cold. After shivering for about half an hour, she searched out the heat source from the remains of the fire and slowly rolled towards it. Of course, it wasn't from the fire.

Two strong arms wrapped around her and pulled her close. Blake squeaked involuntarily, but Yang just shushed her sleepily. Blake found herself with her face buried into the taller girl's collar, enveloped in something much more than body heat. It wasn't fair, she smelled _good_ too, at least once you got past the, well, dragon-ness.

Morning came too soon.

When the sun shone through the trees, Yang rolled away from her with a grumble and struggled to her feet. "I'm going to go wake up, be back in a second."

Blake got up as well, trying to ignore the sudden cold that pierced her to the bone, and set about taking apart the evidence of the campsite. Perhaps old habits just die hard. Still, it couldn't hurt. She scattered the remnants of the fire-pit, ash and partly burnt wood, and took apart the grass mesh. Yang returned with her head soaking wet, hair dripping down her back.

"Seriously? That stream's got to be barely above freezing."

Yang shrugged dismissively. "Ready to go?"

They didn't talk much. The day was just traversing terrain. The forest was expansive and dense. Every so often, one of them would climb up a tree to make sure they were still traveling in the right direction. Day turned into night, they set up camp in the same way. When morning came, they took it down and set off for more walking.

"How very kind of them," Yang remarked sarcastically as the afternoon turned into evening on the third day. "Our test is to walk for a week back to the campus."

Which is, of course, exactly when they reached the edge of the forest, to see the village under attack.

"Woo! That's more like it!" Yang cheered, taking a moment to pose fabulously as gold rippled down her forearms before jumping at the nearest alpha.

Blake took a second to evaluate. The village was made up of fifteen or so grass-roofed buildings. There were two distinct packs of beowolves on opposite sides of it. Four ursai were rampaging in the middle. There were six large men armed with clubs trying to defend but could only slow down the ursai together. Blake ran forward, pulling out both halves of Gambol Shroud. She sunk the katana from twenty feet into the back of one of the ursa's necks. It roared its outrage and turned towards her. One of the others turned to look as well. Blake darted to the side and forward, pulling herself quickly towards it. It swiped at her, but she dodged with a clone and got behind it again, slashing at its back. The ursa turned around, but again Blake just dropped a clone and slid under it as it reared up to swipe at the clone. Its front paws came down again but Blake jammed both weapons into its belly, and pushed to the side. The ursa fell and shattered into smoke as it hit the ground. Blake turned to the next one.

Yang, meanwhile, was taking out one of the beowolf packs solo. She had landed in the middle of them, killing two beowolves with the first ground slam. Sliding under the alpha's raised foot, she took out two more with a rapid series of punches and quickly blew up the rest with a few fireballs. Only then did she turn towards the enraged alpha.

"Oh sorry, I thought you wanted a 1-v-1," Yang taunted, blocking its slash dead in the air with one hand. She twisted as she threw a punch with the other, connecting with its shoulder. The alpha was knocked sideways a step before swiping at her twice. Yang assumed a lower stance and bashed both slashes backwards, advancing slowly towards it. In the middle of the village, a couple of ursas roared. Two of them were already fading into smoke. The alpha turned towards it, ears perking up. It abandoned Yang and charged towards the ursa fight.

"Oh, for cryin' out loud! I literally killed your family!" Yang crouched and then exploded forward, riding a trail of flame as she slammed into it from the back. The alpha collided with one of the ursai, knocking it off where it was standing on one of the local men. Four of them had already had to retreat from injuries, leaving Blake with two others against the two remaining ursai. The beowolf pack on the other side of the village had destroyed two buildings, but nobody was there to address it. Blake slashed ineffectually at the alpha's armored hide, but Yang had jumped up to its head. She slammed her fist into it several times before hearing the audible _crack_ of its neck. She jumped off its back as it fell, landing in front of one of the ursai. She reared back hard and punched it ten feet through the air, into the other beowolf pack. Jumping forward, she landed in a low lunge, shooting a blast of flame from her palm that knocked everything except the alpha out of the village. Blake and her ran forward, the Grimm immediately turning their attention to Blake. Yang went through them like a bowling ball through pins, scattering the beowolves and destroying the injured ursa in a couple of hits. The beowolves were quickly dealt with, but the alpha caught Blake off guard and sent her flying into a house, a small black ribbon drifting through the air. Yang concussed its head with a couple of fireballs, and it quickly spun around and smashed Yang into the floor. Yang, not expecting, went down hard, and didn't react in time to stop it from grabbing her by the ankle and throwing her into a building. She smashed through one of the sides, falling to the floor. The alpha slammed its paws down on her, and bent its head to her side with open jaws.

"Yang!" Blake shouted, running forward. But a shockwave blasted out from beneath the Grimm, forcing her back, and the alpha was knocked several feet into the air.

Yang stood, face an emotionless mask, but with eyes flaring red and hair glowing, and her fist in the air. She breathed in, and leaped forward at where the alpha was falling on its back, hands together at her lips in a prayer position. Blake was vividly reminded of Yang's match versus Ruby on the second day as Yang crashed down on the beowolf. Fire blew out in a ring for twenty feet in each direction before drifting into the air, briefly clouding the area in red before clearing to show Yang half-kneeling on the ground with black dust around her. She stood up slowly, arms rising to her sides before slowly touching her fists together. She turned and a grin broke out on her face, eyes lilac.

One of the buildings near the center seemed to be an bar of some sort. Most of the village, older people, women, and children, were slowly emerging from it. Wide eyes followed the pair of huntresses as they walked in. Yang strode to the bar. The tender, an elderly woman with white hair, stood to receive her.

Yang leaned against the counter. "Have we earned our dinner?"

"Go siddown," the woman drawled, her voice thick with country accent. "I'll 'ave th' boy bring over some roast pork." She indicated the set of long tables to the left where a few people were sitting already. Most of them men, most of those injured in some way. None of them said anything, but their eyes followed the pair as they walked. Mostly Blake.

The boy, maybe fifteen years old, nervously brought over two large plates. "Sh- she says you can have the spare room upstairs tonight. It's not, well, big, but, uh, should be okay. And, uh, there's a bath house through that door you can use."

"Thanks," Blake said, smiling at him.

"Gods," Yang muttered. "Not having a proper meal in a couple of days has made me _subtly peckish_..." She devoured three overflowing plates of pork, potatoes and beans. Blake didn't eat quite so much, but she had felt equally ravenous. Yang dramatically flopped onto the table, using her arms as a pillow, after finishing eating.

"Forty-eight hours of walking, five minutes of killing Grimm. The life of a huntress," she yawned.

"It's part of the job," Blake said. "Couple hundred years ago, it might have been the other way around, so be thankful."

"Whatever," Yang mumbled. "At least something happened. I wonder if this was our test?"

"I can't imagine they knew about this before," Blake said. "We barely got here in time. There's no way they'd just let a farmer village get attacked."

"Probably," Yang agreed, then slowly pulled herself to her feet. "You coming?"

"Oh, uh, yeah," Blake said, standing up. Several pairs of eyes were watching her closely. More specifically, they were watching the bared ears on top of her head.

Yang put her arm around Blake's waist and looked around the room, slowly meeting every pair of eyes. One by one, they dropped.

"Come on," she said, her voice tighter than usual.

The 'bath house' turned out to be a stone room with a large basin in the middle, a pipe feeding into it. Yang twisted the knob and water rushed in. Blake locked the door and turned to see Yang stripping down.

"Yang?" she said, face flushed.

Yang looked at her over her shoulder.

"We're two girls alone in a farmer village full of people so unfriendly they pick you apart for being a faunus after we literally saved their village. And probably their lives. Get in the tub."

Yang turned off the valve, stepped in and sat against one of the walls. With her fists together, she breathed out and closed her eyes. There was a small hissing noise, and steam started to rise from the water. Blake jerked her eyes away and undressed. She hesitated after taking off her shirt and shorts, but seeing Yang's eyes closed and head tilted back against the edge of the tub, she quickly took off her undergarments and slipped into the water.

It felt like heaven on her skin. After being in the woods for three days, finally having a proper meal and then being able to relax in the hot water was a delicious feeling. Yang produced a container of a gel-like substance and started combing it through her hair.

"They're not all so bad. The bartender totally set us up," Blake said.

"Heh," Yang said. "Yeah, she did. Here." She held out the container, but still did not open her eyes. "It's the country boy equivalent of body wash."

Blake hesitated for a second, before standing up out of the water and lathering herself.

"We can wash the clothes after," Yang said.

"How are they going to get dry?" Blake asked.

Yang opened her eyes and held out her hand, palm facing Blake. The warm blast of air almost immediately dried the skin around her midriff. She squeaked and covered herself with her hands before dropping back into the water. Yang just laughed gently, taking the container and repeating the process with herself. Blake tried to look anywhere else as she rinsed her hair.

It was nearly an hour later when they got to the room, exhausted. It was small, just a room with a double bed and some tables. Yang stripped down to her underwear and flopped on it. She wiggled partially under the sheets and lay on her back with her arms back against the bed, wrists by her shoulders. Her head was tilted to the side away from Blake, but turned to look at her. Blake had to swallow a smile at how much the girl looked like a puppy, playfully presenting her rippling, muscled belly. Surprisingly, her body was not super bulky per se, instead composed of the longer, leaner muscles one would expect on a runner or other endurance athlete, despite her tendency for strength over stamina. Her eyes were a deep indigo color in the darkness, but with streaks of burning crimson piercing her irises. She wore a coquettish half-smirk, staring up at Blake. Blake flushed ungainly, rolling her eyes, and similarly stripped, sliding into the bed. For once, it wasn't cold when they went to bed, but Yang, regardless, immediately wrapped her arms around her. Properly clean now, Yang's skin was soft and smooth against her own, and she smelled _amazing_.

"Exactly what I came to Beacon for, a personal space heater," Blake said dryly.

"Isn't that like cats' favorite thing?" Yang said.

" _Yang..._ " Blake tried to pull away, mortified, but Yang just squeezed her tighter, giggling.

The blonde rolled partially over to her side. "I wonder how the others are doing. Hasn't everyone except Ren and Nora already expired their deadline?"

"I think Ruby and Weiss have until tomorrow morning," Blake said, relaxing. "But I'm sure they're probably already back at Beacon with everyone else."

"Poor them," Yang said. "Can you imagine being stuck inside that castle, while your friends are out having an adventure?"

Blake raised herself onto one elbow and stared down at Yang. "You'd know all about locking people in castles, wouldn't you?"

Yang cracked a grin. "Crude. But I guess I deserved that. Also, that's only princesses."

Blake lay down again. "What if _I'm_ a princess?"

"Well, then I guess you have some bad news for Sun. Because I don't think Jaune's gonna save you."

Blake snorted. "Jaune fighting a dragon. Wouldn't that be a sight."

Yang's arm tightened around her, voice barely above a whisper. "One that I hope you never have to see."

Blake turned to her slightly questioningly.

"We should sleep," Yang said. "We've still got a couple days to get through this forest."

"Right," Blake said, curling up against her. "Night, Yang."

"One more thing... I like it better without the bow."

Golden eyes shone uncertainly through the darkness. But everything was still.


	7. Chapter 7

**Demi II**

"Hey mom."

The gravestone lay on the precipice of a narrow cliff, jutting over the edge of a deep valley. Mist bathed the canyon, with only the occasional tree jutting its head above the gentle clouds. Grassy field rose on either side. The precipice itself was a clearing, the denser forest of upper Patch carved backwards in a wide semicircle. The dawn air was cool, but refreshing rather than unpleasant.

"I know it's been a long time since I've been here, but it's just been so exciting since we started at Beacon! It's only an hour away or something like that, but I've just been so busy with school, and friends, and training, and all that."

Ruby paused for a second, tilting her head to the side. The ears on top of her head flicked as the mild wind changed direction.

"You'd be so proud of Yang. She's really a great fighter! In our class she's top of everything except Pyrrha. But she still sometimes beats her, too, even though nobody else can! And she's been doing great at the school. Gets along with pretty much everyone, even though I think Sun drives her nuts. Heh."

She tilted her head to the side, red-tipped hair blowing in the wind.

"You'd be proud of me, too. Dad was worried that I wouldn't be able to make many friends there, since they're all older than me. And because I'm, well, me. Also because dad likes worrying. But it's actually great! The people there are so nice. Especially my teammates, Blake and Weiss."

"Nice?" Weiss' faintly incredulous words carried from behind her.

"Oh yeah, there's someone I want you to meet." Ruby flashed backwards in a stream of rose petals, grabbed Weiss' hand and pulled her the few steps forward to the stone.

"Erm..." Weiss choked out.

"This is Weiss, my partner. I bet you find it as funny as I did when I found out I was partnered with a Schnee. Except she's actually an amazing person! She's super smart. And she does the craziest magic with dust! We've figured out tons of secret strategies. Blake and Yang always won the partner combat classes, but that ends ... today!" Ruby proudly drew herself up tall and punched her hand into the air victoriously.

"As for the others, well, Blake's Yang's partner. They get along super well. They're like magnets. Blake is like one of those nerdy ones. Always off studying or reading a book. But Yang can always get the two of them into trouble together. And our BFFs are team Juniper! Some dorky boy named Jaune Arc managed to get partnered with Pyrrha Nikos. He was really bad when he got here, but he's been working really hard! They actually work really well together now. And the other pair, Ren and Nora, are practically a couple. Ren's a bookworm kind of guy, super quiet. Him and Blake are BFFs. And Nora is always super loud, and she always beats Yang in the arena, which is pretty funny. Yang's always so salty after practice when they spar.

"We're just finishing our midterm. The teachers are crazy people, blindfolded us and dropped us off in a Grimm-infested forest. And get this, they thought it would be a challenge." She grinned widely. "Crescent Rose needs some cleaning. But they dropped us off northeast from the school, so Patch was right on the way home. I was going to stop by dad's, but I don't think they'd approve of that. It is supposed to be a live-off-the-land survival test, after all."

The sun was just jutting above the treeline behind them. Weiss cleared her throat awkwardly.

"Oops! We should probably get going. They're expecting us in a couple hours, and we've still got to make the trek into Vale. Love you, mom!" She gave one last smile before turning around.

"Thanks Weiss."

"Oh, it's ... no problem at all! We'll be back at the school in plenty of time." She stared stuffily forward into the forest.

Ruby's smile touched her eyes.

* * *

Blake yawned widely and stretched. Sunlight streamed through the window.

"So much for an early start," she murmured.

Yang mumbled something incoherent and rolled over, face down into the pillow.

"Come on," Blake said, pulling herself out of Yang's arms. "Don't get lazy yet, we're two days out yet."

She dressed herself, and turned to see Yang blearily rubbing her eyes. She could barely contain her laughter.

"Wassamatter..."

"You've got a bit of a bed head."

"Better a bed head than a forest floor head," Yang groused, before standing up unsteadily and walking towards the bathroom. "I guess we should see if Ms Innkeeper is kind enough to give us breakfast before we go on our way."

She was. Turns out, farmer towns like pancakes too. However, the atmosphere was still unfriendly at best. Blake, uncomfortable, cut the blindfold from the first day into a ribbon, and bound it back into a bow on her head. It was a matter of only an hour or so before they left the seafront clearing back into the forest.

"I gotta admit," Blake said. "I've never really been dreading a walk in the forest before. But this gets on my nerves after so long."

"I don't know..." Yang said thoughtfully. "I kind of like it. It's so peaceful, and, well, predictable, I guess."

"Predictable?"

"Yeah. Pretty much the only thing that moves much is big animals. Like, there's a herd of deer in that direction, moving eastward." She gestured her point. "We kind of stick out like a sore thumb. But so does everyone else, if there were other people here. Patch, where Ruby and me grew up, is pretty much all forested. I always liked it."

"It's easy to hide in the forest," Blake said. "Especially one as dense as this one. Hard to follow someone in here."

"Two different experiences, I guess," Yang said. "Why were they so interested in you? An organization like the White Fang gotta have plenty of deserters, they can't chase all of them to the ends of the Earth."

"It's ... complicated," Blake said.

"Good thing we don't appear to be running short on time," Yang said carelessly.

"I joined the Fang when I was young. I guess you could almost say I was born into it."

"Family connections?"

"My dad ... was actually the leader, back then."

"Well," Yang said, nodding sagely. "I guess that would do the trick. You left when they changed leaders then?"

"No," Blake said. "Don't get me wrong, I didn't like the direction the Fang was headed in. But I didn't really believe it back then. I was a youthful optimist. I really thought we were making a difference."

"So what was the tipping point, then?"

Blake sighed. "You remember that guy I mentioned back at the beginning of the term? Adam?"

"Yes."

"He became, over time, one of the highest order officials within the organization. And he was a major contributor to their new style of ... riots, looting, pillaging." Her tone fell into disgust. "But he fooled me. He told me not to worry. And the moment I saw him for what he really was, what the Fang really was, I left."

"And he took it personally?"

"I don't know what's him and what isn't. All that I know is that every time the Fang infiltrated a city I was living in, members always eventually came looking for me. But I was never caught. Until that second night here."

Yang put her arm around her waist protectively. Blake's head came to a rest on her shoulder. And it was that way, walking together in companionable silence disrupted only by small talk and the occasional joke, until late afternoon, when they found it.

Blake grabbed Yang's sleeve and they peeked around a tree into a small clearing, where a deathstalker was sitting in the sun.

"Okay..." Yang muttered, gold rippling down her forearms.

"Wait," Blake whispered. "There could be more. Look around first."

Three more of the huge Grimm scorpions lay around the area.

"There's a whole family of them," Yang said.

"Deathstalkers always have a nest," Blake said. "If we can find it and burn it, we'll do more damage than killing these ones out here. Just try to be quiet."

Yang was surprisingly good at being quiet, but she wasn't that good. One of the deathstalkers got up and languorously moved towards them to investigate. Blake grabbed her hand and pulled her in a wide circle around the group.

"We're definitely in their territory," Blake said quietly.

Yang gave her a weird look. "Up ahead."

"What?" Blake said.

Yang pointed. It looked like a large, rocky outcropping from the ground, but as they got close they saw a large opening leading down into the ground. Hugging the wall, Yang pushed into the darkness, Blake close behind.

"How well can the deathstalkers see in here?"

"Better than humans, worse than us," Blake said. "But of course they can hear, so don't make too much noise."

The passageway lead further into the ground, but there was a faint trace of reddish light up ahead leading from around the corner. They got to it and peeked inside to see the opening to a massive cavern.

Illuminated by strange crystals that glowed red and seemed to be growing out of the rock, the cavern descending over a hundred feet downwards and several hundred long. Ledges ran along the sides, filled with deathstalkers, the whole way across. More Grimm than Blake had ever seen in her life lay dormant in this cavern.

But before she could even react, Yang let out a strangled gasp, falling to her knees with eyes unfocused. She held onto one of the glowing crystals for balance and held her chest with her other hand.

"Yang?!" Blake spun to her.

Yang blinked slowly, looking up at her. Red was slowly bleeding into her eyes. "I can feel it. Down there. It ... it burns." She pointed at the bottom far corner of the cavern, which again disappeared into black.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Just... we _need_ to find out what that is. Stay behind me, and stay close. Ugh..." Yang struggled to her feet, and seemed to find a semblance of balance.

"Yang, you're not okay. We need to get out of here."

Yang completely ignored her, and, trailing her hand against the wall, started walking down into the cavern. Blake followed her closely.

The crystals pulsed subtly, regular as a heartbeat. The entire cavern was bathed in the blood-red light of an evening twilight, but none of the deathstalkers reacted in any way as they walked by. It was as if they were carved from the stone. Yang barely even glanced at them. They seemed to reach the far tunnel in no time at all. It kept going down for a short time, and then leveled off. And at the far side, deep in the inside of the deathstalker nest, it opened up into a small room. Standing up towards the back end, two upright poles made out of a shining, black material, twisted and knotted like a tree branch, formed a triangle with the stone of the ground and a liquidy red substance stretched between them. The red had the same strange, pulsing quality, matched in the crystals. And, Blake noticed when she turned to Yang, the heartbeat was mirrored in the blood red of Yang's eyes. Her usually light bronze skin looked sallow, her arms weak, and her posture slumped. Worse still, with every pulse of the crystal, Yang's aura dropped noticeably.

"That's it, we're getting out of here," Blake said. She grabbed Yang's arm. But no matter how hard she pulled to the side, Yang didn't budge an inch.

"You feel it." The voice came from behind them. Blake spun around. A woman with dark gray hair, blood-red dragon wings and matching eyes stood blocking the way back up through the tunnel. Blake's knees felt weak as horror spread through her. The woman extended her hand towards Blake. The crystals in the small cavern glowed, and beams of light shone on her. Her muscles locked in place, and she found she couldn't budge no matter how hard she tried.

"Who... are you?" Yang muttered, her voice strained.

"So this is the mighty Dragon of the Sun?" the woman said, ignoring her question. " _You're_ the one who killed Raven and Hermos? Somehow, I expected more."

"Who are you," Yang repeated dully.

"I go by many names. But perhaps you'll know me as Cinder."

Silence. Then, Yang: "Why?"

"You, like so many others before you, sought out this place. It has the answers you desire."

"I don't need answers."

"And yet, you're still here."

Yang had no response. Her aura was below half. Blake's own aura was draining quickly as she fought her invisible restraints.

"It is rare for a dragon to seek knowledge. But it is far rarer still for one to seek the light."

"Light or darkness. It makes no difference to me."

Cinder considered that for a second. "But light and darkness are all the difference. Our world is made from light and darkness. It is the endless battle between those two forces that we are in the middle of. Light and darkness. Order and chaos. Yin and yang. But you know of this already."

"Yes."

"But you have picked the light. The yang. Pray tell, Yang, have you ever wondered why dragons, alone of all the myths of our world, naturally take a human form?"

Yang raised her head, still staring at the wall in front of her.

"We are unique. All the others of this world come from the darkness, from yin. But dragons were never meant to be. Our kind was a cruel experiment, meant to create a superhuman to fight for the light. But it went wrong, and left us with but a corruption of humanity. The ultimate killer of mankind's greatest heroes."

Yang did not say anything. Her aura slowly ticked down.

"You were meant to be a human, Yang. But you were robbed of your birthright. Our whole race is corruption. And yet you choose to fight for the one who created it."

Yang still did not say a word.

"The answers lie ahead, Dragon of the Sun. You can find the way out."

Yang slowly looked at the portal.

"It is the only way out. You can feel it, deep inside you."

Yang blinked slowly. Blake wanted to grab her, shake her out of her trance. But her aura was dropping and her muscles burned, and she still couldn't move an inch.

"Go..." Cinder's voice was barely a whisper. "The cat will be fine, with me..."

"With you." Yang said dully. Her aura was almost completely gone.

The woman took one step forward. Her step made a _click_. Yang's head snapped up

And without seeming to move, Yang was between them. Rotated forward on the balls of her feet, her fists together, wings exploding from her back. Her entire form was gold scales, her hair burning with a golden flame. The woman snarled, red shine bleeding all over her skin, and Yang punched her hand forward. A shockwave blasted out of her, igniting the walls and cracking the top of the cave. Every crystal in the room brightened at once, shining beams of increasing red light upon the woman. Her eyes widened, stepping back, and the light reached blinding levels. There was a massive explosion but arms closed around Blake again and she felt a tremendous acceleration. Everything went dark again, and then lightened, and Blake saw trees rushing beneath them and rapidly approaching mountains. A small jerk, and then they were falling, gold melting back into Yang's skin and wings folding back into nothing. They smashed through the foliage and crashed into the ground, hard, Blake breaking from Yang's arms as they tumbled across the ground. Blake slowed herself to a stop quickly; Yang crashed into a tree. She looked up expressionlessly, eyes shining with a crimson that filled the entire eye with no visible pupil or cornea, as deeply colored as the blood dripping down her back and shoulders, before slumping to the side, unconscious. The entire incident took less than fifteen seconds.

Blake snapped out of her shock. She ran over to where Yang was lying against the tree. She grabbed Yang's shoulder to tilt back her head, but the blood seared her hand. She jerked it away, blisters already forming on her skin. Gritting her teeth, she pulled Yang's torso up to see. Blood welled up from a hundred small lacerations, but she didn't seem to be in immediate danger of bleeding out. Blake hefted her in a fireman's carry and started walking quickly, northeast, towards the mountain pass. She tried as hard as she could, one foot in front of the other. But Yang was over six feet tall and practically made of dense, hard muscle. Blake's aura was worn down, and fatigue was quick to set in. She slowly struggled the last few kilometers up and through the pass, through the gates, and onto the campus. She barely even recognized the voices that suddenly surrounded her, hardly felt the weight on her shoulder vanish, and didn't feel at all the hands that caught her when the world turned to black.

* * *

Bright.

The glaring white lights shone down on her when she opened her eyes. Hiding from the stabbing pain, she took a minute for her eyes to adjust before sitting up in her bed. Nausea immediately gripped at her and the room twisted sideways.

* * *

"Uff..."

Slower this time.

"Hey, you're up!" Sun's voice pierced through her head.

"Hey Sun... what happened?" Blake blearily checked the clock. It read 14:30.

"You tell me! You just came walking onto campus at like 10:00 yesterday night, carrying Yang on your shoulder. The docs said between the two of you, you had absolutely no aura. Nothing. Zip."

"Yang." Blake straightened quickly. "Where is she? Is she okay?"

"Yeah, she's fine. Well, she's not fine, but the docs said she will be. She had no aura and her back was pretty much ripped to shreds, but they patched everything up and apparently it's healing, slowly. Like I'm not gonna lie, you guys are probably the best pair we got. What the hell did you get into?"

"I ... don't know." Memories. Bleeding crystals. A red dragon. The break from the cavern. Yang falling out of consciousness midair, but still rotating to shield her from the blistering speed of the fall with her own body. Yang's back, unprotected by either scale or aura, ripped to shreds against the unforgiving wood. "Sun, I have to..." She pushed her legs to the side and pulled herself up. The room tilted crazily. Sun caught her and placed her back on the bed.

"You can't ..." he began but was cut off by the door to the ward opening.

Professor Peach walked in with a clipboard and a tray of food. She placed it on the bed. Blake was suddenly ravenous and nauseous at the same time.

"Eat as much as you can," Peach said. "Your aura is still recovering and your blood sugar is extremely low. Breakfast, with dust infusion. You can leave once you've eaten and we know you're not going to faint on the way out." She scribbled some notes onto the clipboard and left the room.

Blake demolished the huge stack of pancakes, sausage, fruit, and orange juice, three times what she would normally eat at a meal. The aura meter on the wall was visibly ticking upwards, and this time when she stood up, everything was stable. She quickly opened the door, and Sun lead her to Yang's room.

The girl was lying on her back, still unconscious. Swathes of thick, dark, fabric-like material covered both of her shoulders and upper arms. The aura meter on the back of the bed read 13%. Ruby was sitting on a chair in a corner of the room with a book, but jumped up as soon as they walked in and launched herself at Blake, wrapping her in a tight hug.

"Blake! You're okay! I mean, the docs said you were going to be. Just severe aura exhaustion. But it's still good you're up." She let go of Blake and gave here a slightly shy smile, that quickly faded into one of worry again. "Peach says Yang's not in any danger and her aura's strong enough now to heal her, but she got hurt really, really bad. What happened? To you guys, I mean. Was there a huge fight? The doctors can't even say what caused the injuries. Ozpin came by himself, and he had no idea either!"

"There was another one," Blake said.

"Another what?"

Blake rubbed her wrist. Ruby's expression changed from worry to disbelief to horror. "And... did Yang ..."

"I don't know what happened," Blake said. "Yang and me both lost our auras in the encounter. Her injuries are from a fall after. She passed out mid-air."

Sun was staring at them. "Y'all are going to have to fill me in some small details here."

"I'm not saying anything more until she's awake," Blake said.

"I'll get them to bring in another chair," Ruby said with a small smile. "They like me, here." She disappeared in a flurry of rose petals.

"I guess I'll ..." Sun scratched his head. "It's good to see you back on your feet."

"Thanks, Sun," Blake said.

* * *

A small rustling of sheets. Both Blake's and Ruby's heads snapped up from books simultaneously. And then, a small, low, "Man, I was out for _Xiao Long_..."

"Yang, I swear to God..." Blake stood up.

Ruby was less subtle. With a cry of "YAAAANG!" she threw herself onto the bed, Yang catching her with a wince.

"Watch out, little sis, I'm still... a little sore here..." She gave Blake an apologetic half-smile, just one corner of her mouth tweaking up, before rubbing her eyes blearily.

"Yang, you scared me," Blake said, walking up to the bed.

"I was scared." She tilted her head to the side.

"Blake said you found another dragon," Ruby said, suddenly sobered. "Did you, you know..."

"No," Yang said. "There were ... extenuating circumstances. We..."

Her voice cut off at the sound of approaching footsteps. The door to the ward opened and Ozpin stepped inside.

"Ah, you're both awake. Miss Rose, if you would be so kind as to give us a few moments of privacy?"

"Um, of course, professor," Ruby said, before jumping off the bed and skipping nervously out of the ward.

"Does this mean we failed our midterm?" Yang said wryly.

"It is of our general opinion that the trial you found yourself upon, involuntarily, was far beyond the scope of what we could expect from someone within their first term at Beacon Academy. We did not know that there was a Deathstalker nest on your route, and particularly not one of that magnitude."

Blake opened her mouth to speak but Yang spoke first. "Was it destroyed?"

"Utterly so. The hidden cavern was collapsed, and it is still burning. Nobody has been able to enter it. But I must know, was there anything at all unusual about the nest?"

Yang gave a small laugh. "Other than being a cavern with several hundred major Grimm living in it? Not really, no."

Blake closed her mouth.

"Several hundred?" Ozpin placed one hand on top of the other on his cane. "Blake, was there anything you noticed? Anything at all you would like to add?"

"No, sir," Blake said.

Ozpin looked at them carefully, before seeming to come to a decision. "Very well. You have both been through an incredible ordeal. I want you to know you both acted as heroes. Very few students, upon seeing that, would have tried to eliminate it, and much fewer still would have succeeded. You saved many lives yesterday, and I apologize most deeply for not learning about this nest sooner. I will leave you to get your rest."

He picked up his cane and buttoned his coat. "Thank you for your time, miss Xiao Long, miss Belladonna."

His footsteps retreated.

"Why?" Blake asked.

"Listen, Blake." Yang straightened her head up and stared into Blake's eyes. "If there was only one person in the entire world who could tell you who you really were, and you had one chance to learn it, would you?"

Blake did not have an answer to that question.

Yang tried to push herself up, but winced in pain and fell back on the sheets. "Ugh, is there anything to eat around here?"

 **A/N: Without our aura, we are but mortals. /edge Also, Ruby and Weiss are adorable. Definitely going to be writing more of them.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Horos**

"I don't want her here."

"I needn't remind you that you have no authority in this matter."

"No. But the Vytal festival is three months out. And as long as Atlesian citizens are in Vale, I have the responsibility – and authority – to protect them."

"Well, what do you suggest we do?"

"You know damn well what I think we should do."

"Besides that."

"Have you ever met a wild animal, Ozpin? You might find one one day. Sick, weak. You take it home. Care for it. Nurture it to health. You think that you are friends, because it is friendly towards you. Right until the moment it bites your arm off."

"I know several people who would bite your arm off for making that statement in this context."

"You're being facetious. Clearly _somebody_ around here has got to try to get things done."

"I will send her on more missions then. She and her partner are nothing if capable, and then perhaps we have more of a foundation to make such accusations next time."

* * *

 _Bang. Bang. Bang._

The main gym, one of the biggest rooms at Beacon, was a huge square. In the middle sat an arena ringed by a low steel cage, similar to the amphitheater Glynda's class was held in, but without the spectator seating. Instead, there was a large floor with all manner of workout equipment on it. From squat racks to punching bags to hanging rings, practice dummies and targets in varied states of repair, and all manner of swords, clubs and sticks, the room held pretty much anything one could imagine to workout with. One of the walls of the room was made of a material almost identical to obsidian, but apparently much harder. Used for testing combat semblances, it had become a bit of a joke at Beacon that there was an ongoing challenge to break it.

Usually a bustle of activity with tens of students at any given time, today the only person Ruby could see was her sister, pounding at the bag with a perfectly steady rhythm. Each hit was slow, seemingly almost lethargic, but the muffled impact echoed from the room's high ceiling, and the bag flexed violently with each hit.

Ruby stepped around the corner of the arena, feet carefully placed on the floor as she cut across the wide floor. She leaned against the wall and watched for a minute or so before speaking.

"Want a sparring partner?"

"Waited until I was tired first?"

"You bet. Come on." Ruby grabbed her shoulder and pulled her toward the arena. She tossed her hood over a peg and rolled up her sleeves. Yang rolled her head side to side, and then jumped at her.

"Predictable!" Ruby taunted, dodging a couple of hits. "Why think, when you can just punch?"

She spun around Yang in a flash of rose petals and unleashed a flurry of blows at her back. Yang twisted to block, but missed a few. Ruby hit her in the stomach, shoulder, side, and a particularly nasty blow to the side of her head.

"Focus, Yang!" she shouted, darting backwards. Yang shook herself and assumed a fighting stance again, with a grimace.

Ruby charged at her again. Splitting into two streams of rose petals, she rushed around Yang as the older girl dropped low in her stance to meet her head-on. She placed the side of her hand on Yang's spine and circled behind her as Yang spun around. Yang twisted and turned, swiping at Ruby's stance with her legs, but only succeeded in temporarily fending her backwards before Ruby landed another two solid hits on her back. Yang spun and punched but only caught rose petals. She instantly tucked into a dive-roll before exploding upwards and punching ... rose petals.

"It's not Blake, is it?" Ruby said.

"Huh?" Yang stopped moving for a second.

And then Ruby's arm was around her neck from behind. The girl threw herself backwards and down, flipping Yang over her head and slamming her face-first into the ground, pinning her with her knee.

"You always get like this when you're avoiding something," Ruby said, squeezing her arm. "You can only focus on one thing at a time, and right now, that's not this fight."

"I'll show you focus," Yang growled. She flipped over, tearing Ruby's arm off her throat and delivering a punch that slammed Ruby into the ceiling twenty feet above. Ruby drifted down in a stream of rose petals and landed lightly in her stance on the other side of the arena.

"Ow," Ruby said, grinning. "Tell me your strife, O sister of mine!"

"Your sister might have messed up," Yang said ruefully. She punched forward, twin streams of flame swirling around each other towards where Ruby stood.

Ruby was back on her in an instant. A quick flurry of punches. Yang blocked every single one, head on. Ruby spun around her again.

"You're not even trying!" the younger girl called. "You're trying to dodge yourself, but you can't even dodge me!"

"You sound like Qrow," Yang said. Block, block, block, spin.

"Yeah, well he's usually right!" Ruby shouted.

Yang turned and Ruby was right in front of her with her arms crossed.

"You didn't kill her, did you," Ruby said softly.

Yang stopped mid-movement. "No. I didn't."

"When we came here. Ozpin said..."

"Ozpin said a lot of things," Yang said wearily. "Too bad none of them meant anything."

"Yang! You can't say that..."

Yang sighed. "Harsh? Maybe. But that doesn't make it any less true."

"Was she too strong?" Ruby asked uncertainly.

"No. Maybe. I don't know. I didn't try."

"Why not?" Ruby tilted her head to the side.

"She knew Raven."

"Oh. ... Are you going to look for her again?"

"I think... she's going to find me, not the other way around. That's why I think it's okay. She's more interested in me than a farming village. The problem is that ... I don't know that for sure. And many of those villages couldn't protect themselves from a Grimm attack, let alone..."

"Yeah, it's a mess," Ruby said. She scratched her head. "Well whatever you choose to do, your team is behind you a hundred percent!" She gave a wide, gleaming smile.

"Thanks Ruby. You're the best little sister ever, you know ..." Yang was cut off as Ruby disappeared in a flash of rose petals. She instantly spun, lowering her stance as she twisted, and punched, fist connecting at the exact moment the younger girl materialized. Ruby slammed into the ground, bouncing backwards and flying across the arena before heavily impacting the cage.

The red girl dropped onto the ground, wincing. "Aura thirty-five percent. Seriously? That was two hits!"

"Two good hits are worth fifty weak ones," Yang smirked. "One of these days, you're going to let me teach you how to throw a punch. We done here or you want to lose the last third too?"

"Your shoulders are bleeding again," Ruby pointed out.

"Gods dammit."

* * *

Weiss groaned as a few loose pages were blown off her desk. "RUBY!"

"Sorry Weiss! Just having a shower quick! Was sparring with Yang."

Weiss began the picking rose petals out of her books. At least her semblance had the courtesy to smell like roses, so it wasn't _totally_ irritating.

* * *

"But what would I _wear_? It's not like this is going to magically heal before tomorrow." Yang rolled her freshly bandaged shoulders in disgust.

"I don't know, wear a suit! Blake would like that, wouldn't she?" Ruby grinned at them. Blake looked uncomfortable.

"Pfft," Yang pffted. "That's gay."

"Well, then it's a good thing you are gay!" Ruby declared gleefully.

Yang casually tossed a pillow at her. Ruby feigned getting knocked backwards explosively on impact, executing several backflips before crashing into the ground.

"Maybe I will, then."

Blake cut in. "Wait, you ..."

"I what?"

"You're actually gay?"

"Well, bi. Ruby likes to tease, you know..."

"Does anyone else know?" Blake asked, almost frantically.

"Yeah, probably a lot of people." Yang tilted her head to the side.

"It's not like Mistral or Atlas," Weiss said dryly. "They don't have a problem with that here."

Blake gaped.

"It's like ..." Ruby struggled for the words. "They don't have many churches here in Vale either. I mean, there's lots of old temples all around here, but of course nobody really goes to them. Except as, like museums."

"So you can just go out in public, and ..." Blake said in confusion.

"Well, not more than a guy and a girl could do," Weiss said primly.

Blake spluttered slightly, face red. "I didn't mean-!"

"I've heard about that, in Mistral and Atlas," Yang said. "I mean, I've never been there, so I wouldn't really know."

"Well, they live under mostly religious law there," Blake said. "They don't ... take it well."

"They don't in Vacuo either," Ruby pointed out. "And there they certainly don't care about ... gods, and stuff."

"That was one guy," Yang scoffed. "And, remember, he bought me drinks after I kicked his ass."

"How could I forget?" Ruby said wryly. "We got kicked out because you started taking 'fireball whiskey' too literally. Anyways, Blake can finish rethinking life later, because we are going ... dress shopping!" She struck a pose with her fist in the air victoriously.

"Do we have to?" Yang whined.

"As a matter of fact, we do," Weiss said.

"What is this?" Ruby said, aghast. "Yang, you've literally never balked at dress shopping before in your entire life."

"Yeah, I've never not been able to reach behind myself in my entire life either," Yang groused, wincing as she moved her arms around.

"Noooooo whining or other ... miscellaneous ... negativity!" Ruby declared, grabbing Yang under her arms and heaving upwards.

Weiss looked on with faint astonishment as the skinny redhead bodily lifted her (much bigger) sister off the sofa and tossed her onto her feet.

"I'm gonna grab the Juniper guys, and then we'll get ready to goooo!" Ruby disappeared in a flash of rose petals, the door slamming shut behind her.

Not more than a couple of seconds later, there was a knocking at the door. Weiss sighed, walked over to it as if with great effort, and opened it. Her expression instantly changed upon seeing Neptune standing there.

"Hi?"

"Ah, hey, Weiss," Neptune said, a smile suddenly spreading across his face. He glanced inside the room quickly. "Mind if I ask you something, um, out here?"

* * *

The sun was setting when Ruby stepped inside the dance hall. Her feet already hurt from the stupid shoes Yang had made her wear. They were bright red, with heels that made Ruby feel like she was walking on stilts. Yang said they were small, and her teammates had the nerve to back her up! Ruby remembered the exact moment of betrayal, when Weiss told her that she'd just have to get used to the idea of heels. Sure, they _looked_ small from the outside, but Ruby was sure that they grew at least three inches the instant she put them on. At least feeling tall was nice. She questioned whether it was worth it though, particularly since she'd grown an inch in the last couple months anyway.

She wondered how exactly she'd gotten convinced to even go in the first place. Although Weiss did say her dress was pretty. It wasn't exactly her sort of thing, a strapless frilly contraption that couldn't even reach her knees, but whatever. She'd ran away with her semblance when Yang had come at her with an eyeliner pencil though.

"Your ticket, please," a somewhat irritated voice sounded from just over her shoulder.

"Oh, yeah, sorry," Ruby said, spinning around and holding it out to the doors-people. She didn't recognize them, two girls probably from the city.

She tried very hard to not trip over her feet as she walked away from them. She almost made it, too, to the punch bowl. But her foot came down one millimeter out of position, and she was history. She flailed her arm out with as much elegance as possible, but her fall seemed inevitable. But then, a hero swooped in! A hand caught hers. And she looked up to catch a glimpse of her savior, and came face to face with none other than Jaune Arc.

"Hey, Ruby," he said. "You okay?"

"Oh, yeah," Ruby said dismissively. "Just, you know, just getting used to these things."

"Okay," Jaune said, letting go of her hand. "That's, good."

"Yeah," Ruby said. She glanced at him quickly then looked over to the throng of people.

"Oh! Uh, would you like something to drink?" Jaune said. "You could have blue punch, red punch, or, uh, purple punch. That's a combination of the two. But I wouldn't ... suggest that."

"Sure, thanks," Ruby said. "Um, blue."

She accepted the proffered glass, before bonking it into Jaune's.

"To the socially awkward," Jaune said, with a grin.

Ruby smiled ruefully and drank half of it off. It didn't taste alcoholic, however much that meant.

"So, who are you meeting here?" Jaune asked.

"Nobody," Ruby said. "Just came to hang out, I guess. And, for the ... the music!" She winced as the next song started, the loud, tacky beat thumping into her skull through the two sensitive ears atop her head.

 _ARE YOU REA-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A- ..._

Jaune's eyebrows almost disappeared to his hairline. "Huh. I guess your team does like staying just with each other. But, I would have thought ... uh, nevermind."

"How about you?" Ruby asked. She scanned the crowd for Pyrrha, but saw nothing.

"Nah," Jaune said, shrugging. "I asked, well, you know, she is your partner and all. I didn't ask anyone else though."

"Did Pyrrha come here with someone?" Ruby said.

"Oh, I'm sure," Jaune said. "She didn't say who though. Ren and Nora finally decided to come together though."

" _We can go as friends, right?" Nora said. "I mean, we're not,_ together, _together. But you gotta support your partner! So I think we should go ... together! You're okay with that, right Ren?_ "

" _Okay," Ren said, sparing a small smile over the top of his book._

"Yeah, I don't know what's up with those two," Ruby said. "It's almost like it's staring you in the face." She really did keep the irony out of her voice. Honestly.

"Did your team have more luck than mine?" Jaune asked.

" _Ruby, you'll never guess what happened. I got asked out by Neptune! Oh my gosh this is going to be so romantic. The dance, I hear it's going to be all candle-lit and ballroom music and..."_

" _That's great!" Ruby gave a pained smile at an uncharacteristically excited Weiss. She did try her best to be happy for her partner. Honestly._

"So basically she decided she liked blue hair more than red. She probably thinks her toes wouldn't survive. A-ha..." Ruby glanced at her shoes again. "Also Yang is sulking somewhere because Blake went with Sun."

"Ouch," Jaune said sympathetically. "Wait, what?"

"I mean, it was obvious Blake was going to go with him. Even though they, like, never hang out. Isn't that weird?"

"No, what? Yang likes Sun too? Since when? Also, what? You, Weiss? Neptune?"

Ruby took a deep breath, and prepared for the explanation of the century.

 _O-oooooooooo AAAAE-A-A-I-A-U- JO-oooooooooooo AAE-O-A-A-U-U-A-..._

* * *

"Ah, I'm alright, actually," Pyrrha said to the young man, who was standing in front of her with his hand out. "Just, taking a break actually. Maybe later -..."

"Girl dance time," Yang declared, plucking Pyrrha neatly out of the circle of people that had gathered around her and spinning her onto the dance floor. The energy of the music filled the room, pulsing off the walls and back into the dancers.

 _Welcome to the broken low, welcome to the famous disco live! Come on lady, come and go, come on lady, get me once and right!_

"Thank you," Pyrrha said. "I thought I'd never get away."

"You just need to learn how to tell people to fuck off," Yang explained.

"I guess, whatever works for you!" Pyrrha laughed.

"It works for everyone," Yang said. "Assertion is the name of the game."

"Maybe."

"No offense, but this is why old Jauney boy is currently trying to chat up my sister instead of here with you," Yang pointed out.

"Is he?" Pyrrha tried to stifle her giggle. "How's it working?"

"Poorly," Yang said. "Mainly on account of his Y chromosome – whoa-"

She pulled Pyrrha to the side as Sun and Blake almost crashed into them.

 _Night of fire, you'd better better stay, you'd better better begin the prayer to play..._

"Sorry!" Sun called as they disappeared into the crowd.

"Yang?" Pyrrha asked, one eyebrow raised. Yang snapped her attention back to her.

"You know," Pyrrha continued wryly. "It's bad form to ogle at a different girl than the one you're currently dancing with."

"I did not -" Yang blustered. "Okay, you know what? Let's knock the socks off these people this song. And then you're going to go save Ruby, okay?"

Pyrrha burst into laughter. "Okay. But only if you go talk to your partner as well."

"Right."

 _Night of fire, come over over me, come over over the top you've never been here..._

"Excuse me ladies, but have you seen Sun?"

Yang didn't break her twirl. "Ran over us like two seconds ago, that way. Why?"

"Thanks," Neptune said, and dashed off.

* * *

Night had well and truly fallen, and so had the music.

 _I believe the morning sun ... always gonna shine again._

A slow beat, lilting and bittersweet, far removed from the earlier disco. Weiss drained her cup and dropped it on the table next to her as she looked at the dance floor filled with happy couples. People talking to each other, sipping drinks, and doing everything from chaste ballroom dances to the drunk couple making out against the wall. Most of them weren't Beacon students; she could only recognize a few people in front of her. Ren and Nora were immediately visible, as was their wont. She'd seen Jaune get positively dragged onto the floor by an uncharacteristic display from Pyrrha, but they were buried somewhere.

She wondered about her team, too. She knew that Sun hadn't stayed with Blake either, but the thought gave her no pleasure, fed no schadenfreude. The stupid monkey was probably somewhere stupid, getting _stupid_ alcohol with his _stupid_ partner. Meanwhile, Yang, who'd arrived alone – Weiss still hadn't figured out how she'd managed that - had gone somewhere, probably to cheer Blake up in her own Yang-ish way.

And about _her_ partner...

"Hey Weiss?"

Speak of the devil.

"What is it, Ruby?"

"You okay?" Her voice was gentle, barely audible over the music.

 _And I believe a pot of gold ... waits at every rainbow's end._

Weiss' gaze snapped up to Ruby for a second. The girl's head was tilted to the side, ears perked so cutely, eyes filled with concern.

Stupid wolf girl who truly, honestly, genuinely _cared_. About her. Weiss Schnee! Thegirl who ditched her partner for some _stupid_ boy who couldn't be bothered to stay with her. Weiss' eyes dropped again, unable to bear the silver.

"I'm fine," she grumbled.

"I know I'm not like ..."

"Like what, Ruby?" Weiss snapped, not looking up at her.

"I ... don't know!" Ruby jumped, ears folding back against her head. "I was just thinking. Since Neptune decided to be a jerk, and, well ..." She trailed off.

"Just say it," Weiss said wearily, finally looking up.

Ruby took a deep breath with her eyes closed before meeting blue with silver. "Weiss. Would you like to dance with me?"

"Oh," Weiss said, utterly nonplussed, tension suddenly draining from her cheeks.

 _I believe in roses kissed with dew..._

"I mean, it's okay if you don't want to, I just thought with Yang and Blake, did you see them on the balcony? They were so cute! ... And you look sad and I ..."

"Ruby," Weiss said carefully, interrupting Ruby's descent into ramble.

"Yes?" Ruby's ears perked up, a hopeful expression in her eyes.

Weiss took a deep breath, then nodded and held out her hand.

Ruby's grin slowly spread to her ears, then she grabbed Weiss hand and whirled her off the chair.

 _Why shouldn't I believe the same in you?_

The girl didn't step on Weiss' toes, not even once.

* * *

"What are you doing out here?"

The voice came, soft and faintly bemused, from behind her. Blake spun around, already knowing the shade of violet she'd see.

"Oh. Just wanted to be alone for a bit, I guess."

"Oh, I could come back? Or ..."

"No, no," Blake said hurriedly. "It's okay."

"You sure?" Yang hesitated, standing still.

Blake gestured outward with a movement of her head before turning back to stare at the stars, leaning heavily on the railing that wrapped around the outside of the huge balcony. The moon hung full and heavy in the cloudless sky, illuminating the grounds in front of Beacon, contrasted from the night lights of the city of Vale far below them.

She felt, rather than heard, Yang walking up next to her and an arm delicately wrapped around her shoulders. She gave an involuntary shiver as Yang's aura of warmth slowly spread through her.

"Where's Sun?" Yang asked cautiously.

"Not here," Blake murmured, barely above a whisper.

"He ditched you?"

Blake looked up at her. Yang's eyebrows were drawn together, a visceral heat pouring from her eyes. Blake shivered again, but not from cold.

"No," she said, in the same quiet, even tone. "I ditched him."

"Oh." The anger melted from Yang's face as fast as it had appeared, and Blake looked away before she saw what it turned into.

Blake's eyes slid closed and she leaned into Yang's shoulder, breathing deeply the comforting scent of her partner. She felt Yang turn slightly and wrap her other arm around her too, hand coming to a rest in the middle of her back. The last traces of the chill of the night air evaporated from her skin, and she slowly slid her arms around Yang's waist in response.

The music was muffled in the twilight.

 **A/N: "Sir, the ships have set sail." "Which ones?" "All of them" Right, back to the action. Somewhere, high over the northern part of the continent of Sanus...**


End file.
